LED LUX is the name of the technology in the new 42PFL9803 television unveiled by Philips today that uses LED backlighting to produce more natural black colors. With individual dimming control over 128 areas, LED LUX produces blacks that compete with plasma televisions, with a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
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Just ahead of CEDIA, Samsung just announced five new LCDs and three plasmas to the global market. Specific model detail is low on availability but we do know that LED technology is going to be incorporated for a more energy efficient process. While LED backlit exactly ‘bleeding edge’ anymore, we are finally seeing the tech seep down into the general market. The sets should run at 120Hz, be equipped with DNIe Pro, and feature Samsung’s proprietary local dimming tech. Price hasn’t been announced just yet, but these sets should see store shelves by the end of this year.
via TechOn
Japanese newspapers are reporting today that Mitsui Kinzoku, an Osaka-based mining and smelting company, might have paved the way to more powerful and ecological LEDs in the future.
The key is a mix between red and blue phosphor, combined with blue LEDs, which leads to the production of extremely pure white light (wave length: 450nm). Mitsui Kinzoku claims the white light created this way is 50% brighter than the one generated by existing white LEDs.
The efficiency of the new LEDs might be able to push forward the use of (less power-consuming) LEDs in home and industrial lamps and lighting applications. Even though the new type of sulfide phosphor Mitsui Kinzoku created is very expensive in production, the company plans to commercialize the product by the end of this year.
Series 9 is pictured above
Announced earlier today were updates to four of Samsung’s varying HDTV lines. First up is the Series 6 LCD HDTVs that feature ToC (Touch of Color), you know, the red bezel on top of a 40,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, full 1080p picture, and Auto Motion Plus 120Hz technology. A flash memory drive is also onboard so you can drop in music and images via USB port. The Series 6 630 HDTVs will be available next month in 40-, 46- and 60-inch models. Prices and specs after the jump.
Keep reading for more info on Series’ 7-9 with the latter being the cream of the crop as they say.
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Yesterday Matsushita Electric Works (to be branded as Panasonic from October this year) presented [JP] “the world’s first lighting device”, which – in contrast to existing fluorescent models – doesn’t need mercury to discharge gas. The company even claims their new technology could might one day be as important as LED and OLED.
Matsushita speaks of an environmentally friendly breakthrough. In experiments, the prototype was 50% brighter than existing lamps while consuming the same level of electricity. Instead of fluorescing phosphor with harmful mercury, the new device uses electron-discharging nano silicon to make Xenon gas emit vacuum UV light, which then causes phosphor to fluoresce.
Matsushita will present details of the research to the general public during the 21st International Vacuum Nanoelectronics Conference to be held in Poland from July 13. The technology was developed in cooperation with the Graduate School of Engineering at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.
If you’re like me, you’ll agree that there’s nothing in the whole wide world that’s quite as bad as getting your hand wet. I hate it! So it pleases me greatly to see this $40 shower head with built-in LED lighting that turns blue when the water’s cold and red when it’s warm (89 degrees, to be exact).
The shower head requires no batteries, thankfully, and “installs in minutes,” according to ThinkGeek. There’s also a flow regulator that limits the outpouring of water to 2.5 gallons per minute. Is that good or bad? Nobody likes a low-flow shower head.
ThinkGeek :: LED Shower Light [ThinkGeek.com]
Santa Monica’s famous Pacific Wheel is gone, having lost the fight against new fangled technology – and man, the new wheel is blinged out. Sure, the it might not be the biggest. It’s probably not the fastest, either. However, it might just be the LED-iest.
Over 160,000 LEDs were used in this $1.5 million dollar refresh, all powered by the same solar panels that juiced the Pacific Wheel up until it was dismantled and tossed on eBay. The LED array is all hooked up to an imaging controller, allowing for all kinds of visual treats: hearts on Valentines day, snowflakes in December, and a picture of John Stamos whenever a Full House rerun is airing.
On a side note, studies show that the ferris wheel would be 20x cooler if it looked like the above photo without the need for long exposure.
Photo Credit: Inhabitant
There’s some sort of display exposition happening in Los Angeles right now, where Samsung showed off an 82-inch LED-backlit ultra high-definition LCD. Yes, that’s it up there; it’s magnificent. The monitor, no surprise, has that 120Hz thing going on.
The rest is trade-pub banter that bores everyone.
via TV Snob
HP and DreamWorks, two titans of something, have joined forces, not unlike Voltron, to develop a new LED-backlit LCD technology that “provides accurate, predictable color and a simple color management process.” Let me translate. You know how when you view an LCD sometimes colors will look different depending where on the panel they are? I guess that’s a big enough problem for movie producers to go out of their way to come up with a new technology.
Basically, it’s an inexpensive 30-bit LED-backlit LCD. No need for hyperbole.
via TG Daily
Springtime doesn’t just bring flowers, short shorts and silly Red Sox pranks. No ma’am, it also brings new information on HDTVs that will be released throughout the year. Someone at BGR got a hold of Sony’s HDTV roadmap for its LCD lineup and it looks like the XBR6, XBR7 and XBR8 will getting a little more than a new coat of paint, the XBR8 especially.
Let’s start with that, the XBR8. The big news here is that it uses LED backlighting, which Sony calls TRILUMINOS. No, it’s not the first TV with LED backlighting (Samsung had one last year in one of its DLPs), but it’s still pretty significant. You’ll also find the Bravia Engine 2 and some sort of contrast enhancer. I don’t know about you, but when I read tech specs, I find flashy-sounding names (SUPER DUP3R CONTRAST HELP++) pretty annoying.
I think some LEDs decided to die on my new MBP. I haven’t restarted as I’m trying to get some work done, but anyone else experience this?
Every one of y’all needs to petition the designer of the floating lamp, a balloon with an LED base. Fill her up with helium and you’ve got, yes, a floating light. Since the balloons follow all the laws of physics, you can expect them to last only so long before they fall back to the earth.
Probably the best thing I’ve seen in a while, real or otherwise.
Lighter-Than-Air Lights [Yanko Design]
Toshiba has two new tablet notebooks up for sale starting today. Both belonging to the Portégé M700 series, they are the "company’s first Tablet PC to incorporate a touch screen LED backlit display."
The two newly-available models both feature an Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 processor, 160GB SATA hard drive, 12.1-inch widescreen LED backlit display, integrated dual-layer DVD burner, Bluetooth, built-in webcam, start at about 4.6 pounds, and have a battery life of over 4.5 hours (according to Toshiba).
The M700-S7002 costs $1799 and features Windows Vista Business and 2GB of RAM and the M700-S7001X costs $100 less and comes with XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 and only features 1GB of RAM. Both are available today.
Toshiba Unveils Company’s First Tablet PC with Touch Screen LED Backlit Display [Press Release]
There’s a story in today’s Digitimes that claims Apple has placed an order for 13.3-inch LED backligt units, known on the street as BLUs. What could Apple be doing with a bunch BLUs, say, maybe, putting the finishing touches on a Damn Small notebook? (That’s what I’m hoping for. I’ve been without a notebook for seven months now… I missing going into Starbucks and stealing passwords and reading AIM conversations.)
MacWorld is only a few weeks away. Please don’t disappoint be, Mr. Jobs.
Kenmos and Nano-Op supply LED notebook BLUs to Dell and A [DigiTimes]
Raise your hand if you knew that streetlamps accounted for 38 percent of all energy used on lighting in the USA. Very good, children! It’s true. And now, the Civil Twilight Design Collective has designed an award-winning light-aware streetlamp that would adjust its intensity based on the brightness of the moon. By using this technology and LEDs instead of the steam-age sodium bulbs we have so many of these days, we could reduce the energy consumption of our nighttime street-lighting solution by as much as 90 percent. It’ll probably be expensive as hell, but I say bring it on. Maybe now I’ll be able to see these “stars” everyone talks about.
Lunar Resonant Streetlights [Treehugger, via PSFK]
From MAKE, this homemade LED jellyfish costume is crazy. Imagine running around in the dark with that thing on. Cool, right? Now imagine it while you’re drunk.
Want to supply Washington Square Park’s retirees with all the chess they can handle? Once nighttime rolls around, you can break out this LED-laden chess board designed by one Daan Van Tulder. You’ll find no standard pieces here (what’s the horsey one called?), but you probably won’t miss them anyway. So even if the park smells like a pungent combination of cannabis and “dog business,” you’ll be the star of that seedy southwest corner.
Chess—one of those things I never got around to figuring out in any real capacity.
Play In The Dark [Yanko Design]
