Lighting

The UK's Adaptalux has added flexible Xenon flash arms to its macro photography lighting arsenal, together with an IR emitter to trigger them.

The UK's Matthew Perks has been running a YouTube channel for about five years, where he walks viewers through the ins and outs of making their own gadgets. For his latest project, he's rescued some broken televisions and computer monitors and turned them into artificial daylight panel lighting.

Electronic devices are made possible thanks to rare-Earth metals, but these are rare and relatively expensive. Now, scientists have found a way to combine common elements into electronically-useful compounds, which could find their way into tunable lighting and solar panels.

​Though most of make use of radio waves to wirelessly transfer data to and from our work mobile devices and computers, there is another way. Signify has just launched a new lighting range called Trulifi that leverages light waves to send and receive wireless data throughout the workplace.​

There’s no shortage of portable lighting options out there for campers or people living in developing countries. But the Lumir K lamp is aiming to be the right mix of inexpensive, safe, bright, portable and efficient, using any old cooking oil as a fuel source to light up an array of LEDs.

With the year winding down in a hurry, ​here's a look at the best camping gear we put through the wringer in 2018. After all, spending time outdoors is what gear innovation is all about, right?

Self-driving cars can't make eye contact to signal their intentions, so Volkswagen is testing several systems that turn a car into an interactive information display to project information onto the road for drivers and display interactive information to other road users.

A year ago, Philips Lighting (now called Signify) announced results of a study which showed that its ClearField red LED lighting didn't disrupt the behaviour of bats – unlike traditional streetlights. Now, the Dutch town of Zuidhoek-Nieuwkoop has become the first place to use the system.

Light bulbs – we all need them, but truth be told, they're just a little bit boring. Smartbunch is hoping to change that with its modular light that lets you design your own table lamps and overhead lights with its LED triangles that snap together to make all manner of 3D shapes.

​If you've opted to go for low "mood lighting" in your office, you might want to think again. According to a new study from Michigan State University, when rats are exposed to dim lighting for prolonged periods, their brain capacity diminishes. The same could likely be true for humans.

Created by Norwegian waste-heat reclamation company ThermTech, the Luminiser Lantern that's currently the subject of a crowdfunding campaign uses a tea candle to power an array of LEDs for up to six hours.

Startup 33 Parallel is trying to help cut the portable lighting clutter with its new Portable Adaptive Lighting (PAL), a modular system that pairs a single light head with various body types, from a flashlight handle, to a headband, to a bike mount and more.