2014 Lighting in Review

If lighting is just a background topic in your mind, you might be surprised to learn what an interesting and even fun topic it can be. For instance, these days it's being explored for medical use and for its affect on our overall health. And with modern LED technology, we have increasing control over how we work with the lights around us.

So we thought we'd close out the year 2014 with a review on its lighting highlights.

60 and 40 Watt Incandescent Bulbs were Phased Out

As step 3 in a phase-out of incandescent bulbs to press the use of more efficient light bulbs, we began the year on January 1 by saying goodbye to 60 watt and 40 watt incandescent bulbs. They can no longer be manufactured in or imported into the United States. Of course they can still be purchased in stores that carry them and used in your home.

Lighting in Sports

Philips wrote up an article discussing the use of lights in sports. Not only can you use lights to create unique balls and other elements of a game, but you can light up entire courts and even use them to coach players. It makes us wonder what kind of entirely new sports could be created with the use of lighted and even responsive courts. And could that eliminate the need for certain referee calls and/or instant replays?

"Smart" Lights are Dumb? Being Cautious with Connected Devices

The world is going smart, so to speak. We're connecting more and more devices to the internet through our home networks, and many of these devices are not well secured. (Not at all secured?) Unfortunately, this gives hackers easy access to our networks, which can lead to all sorts of problems. Smart door locks? They might have them unlocked in no time. In short, the story is to be careful, to make sure these devices are secure if you choose to use them. You can check out this article from CNN as one discussion on the topic.

LED Lights and Art

Over the last year we've come across a lot of beautiful light art. One example includes art done with driving cars. Another is made of glowing trails created by the artist. Click on the image for more examples of his work!

LED Technology Continue to Advance

It seems like advances in LED technology continue being announced, like this announcement that researchers at Princeton University have found a way to increase LED efficiency by 57%. We also learned that LED lights will be able to speak with your smart phone so stores can track you and promote to you ... AKA, help you shop.

LED Lights Lead to a Nobel Prize

Three scientists received the Nobel prize for their roles in developing the blue LED, which enables us to mimic white light bulbs with LEDs. In a blog entry, we discussed a little controversy around this, as the original developer of LED technology was overlooked in this prize.

Lighting Can Affect Your Weight

It seems like there's a lot of research going on around how lighting affects your health because of the hormones it triggers in the brain. This article discusses the impact on your weight.

A Flashlight Powered with the Heat from Your Hand

Maybe you've seen those flashlights powered by squeezing a trigger repeatedly. Well this is an impressive story of a 16-year-old girl who's developed a flashlight powered by the heat from your hand!

The EPA, LED Lights ... and Zombies???

It seems like we're surrounded by zombies everywhere these days, and the EPA put on a less serious face as it tried convincing consumers to switch to LED lights to save energy. And so, yes, it tried to convince us with zombies. We're pretty sure we're can't do these videos justice in words so ... here you go:

So those are some of our favorites from the world of lighting in 2014. What about you? Have any favorites that we should have mentioned here?