LEDs are good for a lot of things, but did you know that they can potentially heal wounds also? According to a 2004 study published in The Journal of Clinical Laser Medicine and Surgery, infrared LEDs can help heal wounds. The study came about thanks to NASA, which was using IR LEDs for plant growth experiments in space. During their research, scientists found that if IR LED light rays were delivered deep into the tissues of the body they could promote wound healing and tissue growth. Once the scientists got a hunch that LEDs could heal wounds, they went ahead and performed some tests. They found that IR LEDs increased cell growth by 155 to 171 percent in humans and wound size decreased up to 36 percent. According to teh study’s abstract, “. LED produced improvement of greater than 40% in musculoskeletal training injuries in Navy SEAL team members, and decreased wound healing time in crew members aboard a U.S. Naval submarine. LED produced a 47% reduction in pain of children suffering from oral mucositis.” The study concluded that , “the use of NASA LED for light therapy… will greatly enhance the natural wound healing process, and more quickly return the patient to a preinjury/illness level of activity.” I guess the question really should be: what can’t LEDs do?
Archive for the 'Innovative Technology' Category
Before you decide if this project is for you, you should answer two very important questions.
1. How much do you like bugs, or other very small, fast moving objects? (If the answer is anything but “a whole heck of a lot,”‘ then you might not be so into this idea.)
2. How much do you like photography? And I’m not talking about looking at pretty pictures, I’m talking actually taking pretty pictures. (If the answer isn’t “I’m obsessed with taking pictures!”, then once agian, this project is probably not for you.)
If you answered sufficiently, however, read on!
So here’s the deal, you bug-nutty shutter-bug, you! A Belgian photographer who goes by the name of Fotoopa has devised a way to take what some are calling the best, clearest and most up-close shots of flying insects (namely: bees) ever. A key component of his contraption is infrared LED lights, as the LEDs are what detect when the bug has flown into optimal shooting range, and then signal the camera to take a picture. In fact, because of the use of IR LEDs, it even works in complete darkness. Before Fotoopa’s invention, the old mode of thought on wildlife and especially insect photography was that you had to take a ton of crappy pictures just to get one or two good ones. And even those were luck of the draw. That’s because human reaction time just isn’t fast enough to capture a tiny insect in flight with as much precision as is needed to take a truly clear picture. If you modify your camera using Fotoopa’s instructions, however, you can get great shots in 10 seconds! Click here to see his DIY instructions for making this ingenious instrument, and say goodbye to the days of frustration and wasting shots. That assuming you already spend a lot of days frustrated over your sub-par photographs of bees. I’m guessing not many of you do, but hey, maybe it’s time for a new hobby!
Got acne? Who doesn’t, or at least hasn’t at some point? Unfortunately, it’s not a pleasant condition, nor a pretty sight, and it can be hard to get rid of. That is, of course, until LEDs came along. You thought LEDs were just good for lighting your home or office? Well, now it turns out they can also lighten your mood by clearing up your skin! “Blue Light Acne Therapy,” or “photodynamic therapy” as it’s called, uses LED bulbs that emit light at a specific wavelength (415 nm) to kill the bacteria that cause acne to start and to persist and spread. Unlike a lot of other acne treatments, LED-based therapy is natural, painless and safe, and doesn’t use harsh chemicals. Usually it involves just sitting in front of a blue-light emitting LED for a few minutes each day. It’s common knowledge that the sun (or UV rays) help to fight acne, but it’s also a well known fact that too much exposure to UV rays can damage skin or even cause skin cancer. In fact, light therapy for acne used to involve bathing beneath UV light rays until it was discovered that UV rays damage skin. Blue LEDs, however, are out of UV range, but still offer all of the benefits of UV therapy for troubled skin, without any of the dangerous side effects!
The Proof
Blue light works by killing the acne-causing bacteria, P. acnes, and is most commonly used to treat inflammatory acne vulgaris that has not responded to other acne therapies. Several studies have documented to effectiveness of this treatment. For instance, a study published in the Journal of Cosmetic and Laser Therapy in June 2003 found that more than 80% of the patients treated with blue-light therapy responded to the treatment. The patients who responded saw a 59% to 67% reduction in inflammatory acne lesions. To learn more about this effective treatment, click here!
Just like flowers blooming in the sun, new solar-powered, sustainable LED street lamps designed by Philips soak up the sun’s rays during the day, and then use the accumulated energy to shine much-needed light at night. This ingenious design mimics that of real flowers; the lights’ photovoltaic petals (each light is comprised of five solar panels in the shape of petals) fall open during the day to collect as much sun as possible. At night, they close, and LED lights embedded in the petals shine outward onto the city streets. But that’s not all! The lights also come with motion sensors, which are able to detect human activity on the street below. When no one is around, the lights shut off, thereby conserving energy. Philips calls this feature “proximity sensing.” Another great feature of these sustainable lights is that whatever energy they don’t consume over the course of an evening, they give back to the power grid to be used elsewhere, ensuring nothing gets wasted. Keep in mind that LED lights are a pivotal component to the energy-saving qualities of this design. Because LEDs are so energy efficient, they are easily powered by the solar energy gathered by the lights over the course of a day. Incandescent bulbs would not be able to work unless at least ten times as much energy was gathered. Philips is unclear about which cities, if any, are using these lights yet, but I’m exciting for the day when I’m walking down the street, and look up to see that LED lights in the shape of giant flowers are lighting my way.
I hate to rub it in, but I had a fantastic Valentine’s Day weekend. I know it’s easy to hate Valentine’s day, seeing how it’s a Hallmark holiday and all that, but it’s also easy to love it–what’s not to like about chocolate and kissing, two major V-day cornerstones? This year was great because my honey came to visit me, and we got to participate in LA’s biggest V-day event, Lucent L’amour. Besides the great music lineup, there was also some truly awe-inspiring art at this event, some of which incorporated full color LED lights!
Take a look, for instance at the illuminated sculpture by Sean Sobczak, also called “Sandman Creations.” Several of these brilliant and beautiful pieces were arranged just inside the entrance to the indoor venue at Lucent L’amour, and they were breathtaking! The light embedded within each sculpture created lines and shadows that seemed to undulate as if the sculptures really were the underwater creatures they were made to represent. As you can imagine, without LED technology, sculptures like these would not be possible. What other type of light fixture can you bend and twist and manipulate to get any shape imaginable? What other light fixtures provide such a mesmerizing and limitless color scheme? What other form of lighting stays cool enough to handle for hours, no matter what the creative process throws at you?
While we here at Elemental don’t sell any of the “el wire” that Sean uses in his sculptures, we do have tons of flexible RGB LED strip lighting in a full array of colors. So if you’re itching to make your own illuminated sculpture, you know just where to go to make it happen! In fact, what a great idea for next year’s Valentine’s Day gift for your sweetie! Nothing says “I love you” like something you made yourself!
If you talk to anyone who watched the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Games on February 12th, you will most likely be talking to an awe-struck person. Literally everyone I talked to who watched the ceremony was in practical convulsions over how amazing the production and performances were, and was equally disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to watch them. See, it tured out that on the night of the 12th, I was busy preparing for another event, which I’ll blog about next time. Suffice to say, I was bummed that I missed getting to see the opening ceremonies. I decided to look up some pictures of them online to see what I missed. What a show! Even looking at still pictures was enough to tell me that this ceremony was truly spectacular. And, I was pleased, and shall I say, not too surprised to see that LED lights were an important part of what made it so special. Take k.d. Lang’s performance of the Leonard Cohen song “Hallelujah,” for instance. I watched it on YouTube, and got chills–her voice was pure perfection. But did you notice all of the candles the audience members were waving in the background? Those weren’t candles at all, actually, they were energy efficient, fire-safe LED flashlights!
And if you saw the segment called “Peaks of Endeavor,” you would have noticed red-and-white-clad skaters, skiers and snowboarders sporting LED lights on their costumes suspended from the ceiling while images of Olympic events were projected on a replica of the Rocky Mountains.
Also, there was a 20-meter spirit bear puppet that was completely covered in LED lights, which represented the cultural heritage of the early Canadian peoples; what a dazzling effect! The Olympic Games play an important role in bringing the world together, especially during these tumultuous times. It’s a good feeling to know that LED lights are a part of that unification!
It’s almost Valentine’s day, and may I suggest that if you don’t have a loved one to squeeze (or even if you do!) on the holiday, then squeeze an LED instead! I just think these squeezable LED lights, designed by Diana Lin, are adorable! They look like some sort of friendly underwater sea creature, especially when they’re all bunched together. The squishables are actually silicone bubbles with an LED light inside. They apparently have the texture and supple quality of a stress relief ball. You can play with them for fun, or you can arrange them in whatever sort of sculptural pattern you like, to create your very own, unique and stylish light fixture. And the best part, apparently when you squeeze the lights, a “whoo!” sound comes out! How cute!
It turns out that this ingenious designer didn’t stop there with her idea, either. Because the silicon creates such a fun tactile experience, Lin then decided to create “Huggables,” which are soft pillows filled with LED lights embedded in silicone bubbles. Here’s what she says about her designs: “When lit with warm, white LED lamps, the technology creates a warm and comforting glow that represents sunlight. The tactile quality of the silicone also mimics the feeling of a living creature, and d°light Huggable almost hugs back as you hold it. Its qualities also absorb body heat, causing it to be warm to the touch. The shape and material of the pillow cover encourages people to touch, hold and bond with d°light Huggable.”
Whether it’s bubbles or pillows, it’s the LEDs in these products that make them possible at all. Without LEDs’ cool temperatures, energy efficiency, and small, lightweight size, innovative products like these would not exist. So if you’ve got no one to love this Valentines day, or no one to hug, at least you’ve got LEDs! They won’t let you down!
Okay, so I don’t know that much about football, and don’t really care either. But I did somehow get roped into watching the Superbowl yesterday, and I have to admit that I kinda had a good time. I mean, how can you not feel a twinge of happiness that that Saint’s won? That city deserves a victory, don’t you think? And didn’t you see that cute quarterback crying and holding his baby son at the end? It was better than a Hollywood box-office hit! Talk about a tear-jerker!
But I have to say, out of the whole event, my favorite parte had to be the halftime show. I mean, they really pulled out all the stops. I know that The Who are getting old and everything, but they still held it together enough to sing a few of the hits. Nice work boys. One thing I think they had going for them was the lighting on that stage! To quote The Palm Beach Post: “A circular space ship of a stage 50 yards wide, flashing and bursting with multicolored LED lights, lit up a darkened Sun Life Stadium as The Who matched the electricity of Super Bowl XLIV.” And how true! That stage was lit up in such intricate detail at times, I wished I was in the stadium experiencing it firsthand. The lights on stage coordinated with a laser show that was going on throughout the venue, which gave the entire show a larger-than-life feeling–every fan and player was surrounded by lights for the majority of the halftime show! And of course, not to point out the obvious, but we couldn’t have had any of it without the cutting-edge technology behind LED lights. One thing’s for sure: without LEDs we would not have been treated to such spectacular and visually stunning show, and who knows, I may have written off the Superbowl for good.!
I’m sure we’ve all had that one pesky-yet-adorable pet who loved to run away. I know I did. (Or at least can pretend I did for the sake of this blog.) Day or night, no matter what names I called him or scrumptious rewards I offered, Sparky would leap over the fence in a single bound, gone until HE decided to come back. If it happened at night, I would be especially worried. Sparky was a lot smaller than he thought he was (he had the canine version of a Napoleon complex) and black as night, and there was no telling what could happen if he crossed the road into oncoming traffic! I spent many sleepless nights with ol’ Sparkster out on the loose. But no more! Thanks to our especially savvy friends in the pet care world, things have gotten a lot less interesting for Sparky. That’s because they’ve wizened up and begun making LED glow-in-the-dark collars for dogs and cats! Just imagine how much relief that will bring when your precious furry one decides to take a midnight stroll. If you know there’s something prominently glowing around his/her neck, you just might sleep a little easier…and we all know that’s a good thing.
For instance the Nite Ize Nite Dawg LED Light Up Collar will ensure that you can see your pet wherever he goes. To quote an article from Gadget Review, “They say you can see these LEDs for as far back as a thousand feet away, and the LEDs in the collar have a life expectancy of 100,000 hours, or, roughly, 11.5 years.” That’s great news for pet owners like me, who believe in both freedom and safety for their fluffy friends. And it’s great news that LEDs are the leading technological revolution in pet safety collars. Their lightweight and energy efficient nature ensures that the next time your dog runs away, finding him will be a lot easier.
It’s hard to imagine a world without incandescent or florescent bulbs, but it seems that’s where we’re headed, in no small part because of the US Department of Energy. In its 6th round of funding for LED technology and solid state lighting, the DOE announced $37 million in grants to support more research for improving LEDs and supporting their development and manufacturing. The grants will benefit both the regular LED and OLED (carbon-containing organic light emitting diodes) marketplaces. As we all know, LEDs can be 10 times as efficient as incandescent bulbs and last hundreds of times longer. They’re safer, both because they’re more durable and because the emit much less heat, so risk of fire is lower. So, with all of these benefits, why is the government still concerned with funding LED research? Well, there are still a few areas that could be improved, namely “cost and color,” according to a Popular Mechanics article. The article states, “ Solid-state lighting available on the market today costs roughly three times as much as other lighting options. This is largely due to the materials involved and the limited economies of scale compared to the long-established techniques for manufacturing incandescents and fluorescents by the hundreds of millions every year. LEDs also have problems with light color—their whites appear too bluish and thereby render other colors poorly compared to traditional bulbs.”
But these small setbacks are but a blip on the radar screen of a continually burgeoning LED market. What’s more, the DOE awarded the $37 million in 17 grants based on three categories to address these issues and hopefully eradicate them for future LED consumers. For example, $4 million is reportedly allocated for “filling in key technology gaps and expanding the knowledge base.” $10.3 million will go towards product development, specifically making products more consumer-friendly. And $23.5 million is intended for a manufacturing category, which will allow companies to produce LEDs for less, therefore driving costs down for consumers.
It looks like all signs are pointing towards a future that’s bright with the light of LEDs…we’re well on our way, jump aboard!