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To readers of this blog it will come as no surprise to see more and more car manufacturers switching to use LED. LEDS are flexible and can be put into clusters to create interesting and innovative designs.
BMW has been using LEDs more and more in their cars and I think they look great … it is a shame that more cars aren’t being factory fitted with LED technology, but that’s only a matter of time.
This year it’s been hard not to notice the switch from traditional bulbs to LEDs.
This Christmas, seeing in Christmas we’ve got large professional ministrations of LEDs on Regent Street, London. Called UNITY the LEDs were arranged into clusters with a large central sphere, with 24 smaller spheres around it. The LEDs can glow at different intestacies and in different colours. They used motion detection to respond to what is happening on the street below. For example as people pass by sphere can light up. The LEDs are using a tenth of the electricity of previous installations.
Seeing us into the New Year in the USA we have the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball.
The new ball with be watched by over one billions people watching world wide.
As a side note, The first “time-ball” was installed atop England’s Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833. This ball would drop at one o’clock every afternoon, allowing the captains of nearby ships to precisely set their chronometers.
This is the 100th celebration of the time ball, with the first being dropped in 1807. Only two years were missed out in that time, and that was due to “dimout” restrictions during the 2nd world war. The new 6ft (1.8m) ball is covered with 9,576 LEDs that use the same amount of electricity as 10 toasters.
The main advantages
You can read more New York, New Year’s Eve Ball online.
If your interested in creating your own outdoor installations check out our range of waterproof 12v LEDs. http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/waterproof-leds-c-76.html
There can’t be many people left in the world who have not at one time or another played a game of Tetris but how about a GIANT game of Tetris in LED heaven? Well a number of guys based in the USA got together to make an LED based version of the game.
The ‘game’ is composed of 240 led buttons. If you want to move the Tetris block right/left, you simply touch a button left or right of the current piece. To rotate a block you touch a button in one of the top two rows. And to drop a block you touch the bottom row. It’s a hands on Tetris game! Now for a few facts from the project:
If you go into the News Agents remember have a look at the latest MOVE OR IMPROVE magazine. With WINTER upon us it’s a great time to think about your lighting requirements. Switching to LED technology can SAVE MONEY and help to SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT at the same time.
From recent experience it can also be a great safety device. I recently helped a friend change over to LED bulbs in their Kitchen. While removing one particular bulb it became evident that the bulb had been touching some fabric. Upon close inspection it was obvious that the fabric had nearly caught fire. While this is an extreme example … it clearly illustrates the benefits of LEDs which radiate little heat vs. TRADITIONAL BULBS which radiate as much as 90% to 95% of their energy as heat.
The applications that can benefit from LED technology continue to grow. The UK Department for Transport has just approved of the next generation of SolarLite from Astucia. These are LED lights with solar panels which replace the traditional cat’s eyes.
The built in solar powered Light Emitting Diode (LED) automatically illuminates from dusk to dawn and provides drivers with up to 900 metres of visibility. This is ten times greater than the traditional, retro-reflective, passive road stud which is limited by the headlight beam of the vehicle. With the increased visibility of the SolarLite road stud driver reaction time is of potential hazard in the road ahead is increased from 3.2 to over 30 seconds, when driving at 60mph. A number of Local Authorities with existing installations in the UK have reported significant reductions in night time accidents of well over 70% since the installation of the SolarLite intelligent road studs.
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