Research

Imagine walking into a conference room where there are no light switches or lighting control panels. Rather the light is “aware.” It automatically responds to where you are in the room, where others are and the tasks they are performing while smoothly adjusting illuminance to the precise lighting needed to optimize comfort, productivity and circadian function.

Researchers at the University of Strathclyde in the UK have developed a process to use dynamically controlled LEDs for 3D imaging.

As lumen depreciation is a significant failure mode with LED lighting, it raises the question whether some older exit signs are still producing sufficient brightness to be visible in smoky conditions. This is the subject of a new study being undertaken by NALMCO in partnership with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, and the topic of an article I wrote about the study for the January issue of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR.

The electrical contracting community experienced significant economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic but is somewhat optimistic about 2021. That is one key finding from the 2020 Commercial/Industrial/Institutional (CII) Lighting Trends Survey, conducted by ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR in October among the magazine’s Subscriber Research Panel. The survey and article were my contribution to the magazine’s December 2020 issue.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) recently published a new report analyzing the energy impact of lighting designs that satisfy three prominent circadian lighting guidelines. The researchers discovered a potentially significant increase in light levels and associated energy consumption.

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, 2020 Annual Update of Global LED Lighting Market, finds that the increasing demand for energy-efficient lighting, the rising number of smart city projects and overall infrastructure development are driving the LED lighting market across the globe.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently released a study investigating age-related changes in LED device efficiency and optical performance.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Wildlife Services (WS) program recently applied for a patent (U.S. Patent Application No. 16/668,253) for a new vehicle-based lighting system to prevent deer-vehicle collisions during low-light conditions.

Researchers at the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL) have produced a method of using light to induce high-frequency sound waves, which in turn are used to reveal the internal structure of opaque materials in very small structures such as semiconductors.