Products + Technology

  A former SpaceX executive plans to keep solar farms running at night, using sunlight from space, reflected off an array of orbiting satellites. The startup is aptly named Reflect Orbital, and the company would provide short periods of “Sunlight-as-a-service from space.” Ben Nowack is the CEO of Reflect Orbital, a former propulsion engineering intern [...]

  By Dr. Jonathan Melman & David Shiller Japanese researchers led by Osaka University have published the discovery of a family of significantly more efficient organic, rare-metal-free, phosphorescent materials: thienyl diketones. Room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) without using rare metals has been an area of intense research. Most commercial RTP materials today utilize iridium or platinum, [...]

  In May, LightArt launched the industry’s first optically clear, 3D-printed pendants, the Clear Coil Collection. The collection upcycles discarded materials like clothing, carpet fibers, dense plastic containers, and packaging into beautifully designed, long-lasting, clear light fixtures. The collection comprises six new pendant shapes, expanding the multi-award-winning Coil family. The company also offers a Coil [...]

  A group of German researchers have created a new metamaterial that is more transparent than glass, diffuses sunlight, adds privacy, is anti-reflective, self-cleaning, reduces glare, and increases radiative cooling. The new thin film is a polymer-based micro-photonic multi-functional metamaterial or PMMM, that can be applied onto a pane of glass. The impressive collection of [...]

Aqua Creations has unveiled its Iris Pendant Light. Inspired by the human eye, the Iris Pendant Light creates diffuse lighting for the home. The Iris Pendant is only 15mm thick and produces significant up light and down light from the double-sided silk panels. The Iris Pendants are available in 3 sizes: Petite 24”, Medium 35”, [...]

  Leather is not a dominant material in light fixtures, but it is sometimes used in decorative lighting. For several years, articles have been published about alternative leathers coming to interior design (furniture) and industrial design, but none of these alternative leathers have been commercially available for production until now. First  though, what is alternative [...]

  Amerlux recently released a new series of architectural decorative downlights that allow designers to cluster different sizes and colors to create visually interesting design elements, in any space. Named the Stadia Collection, the decorative downlights feature a distinctive soft-square trim that extends 2” below the ceiling with a variety of finishes, including: neutrals, hues, metallics, and [...]

    Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) in Australia have demonstrated complex night vision light processing along a simpler, narrower pathway, which means night vision tech can be packaged as a night-vision film that weighs less than a gram and can be placed across existing lensed frames, doing [...]

In March of 2023, LightNOW posted about translucent concrete. Today’s story is about a new translucent concrete made with recycled glass instead of optical fibers, fly ash, metallurgical slag, and water filtration sewage sludge to eliminate all cement from the concrete. Using all of these industrial waste materials makes the product extremely green and lower [...]