Before You Buy a Lamp Shade
So you’ve picked out a beautiful new table lamp for your home. But how much thought did you give to the lamp shade? The right lamp shade can transform a humdrum base into something exquisite, while the wrong lamp shade can make even the most stunning lamp look badly proportioned, inappropriate for the room or awkward to use. So how do you know which lamp shade is right? Lamp shade expert Laurel Ann Kulseth of Laurel Ann Studios in Seattle offers the following pieces of advice: Height. A good rule of thumb is to choose a lamp shade that’s two-thirds the height of the base. That proportion assures that the lamp won’t look top- or bottom-heavy. You also want to be sure that the lamp shade doesn’t expose any of the hardware underneath, such as the harp (the wire frame around the light bulb) or the neck (the piece of metal between the base and the bottom of the harp). “It’s like a lady with her slip showing,” Kulseth says.
Width. The widest part of the lamp shade should be at least a half-inch wider on each side than the widest point in the base. Also consider the location of the lamp: if it’s going on a nightstand, you don’t want to crash into it every time you get in or out of bed. Same thing for a lamp on a hall table—don’t let it stick out so far that you bang into it when you walk by. Seventeen to 20 inches is standard for a large lamp shade; anything over 20 inches risks looking too big.
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LEDs continue to penetrate vehicle applications
Applications in rear lighting, interior lighting and even in-vehicle displays are all proving fruitful for leds. as the recent detroit auto show (naias) highlighted, the value of attractive lighting with a positive brand message is becoming a key feature of new vehicles. led maker osram opto semiconductors inc., for example, has been contracted by ford motor company to provide led lighting for the automaker’s newly upgraded interiors using a ford-specified ice blue backlighting color theme.
2008 ford focus interior osram opto will provide led technology that will give a number of future ford products the same harmonious, ice blue interior lighting in instrumentation, radios, climate control and switches. ice blue is ford’s newest interior brand color – a blue hue that will be incorporated into many new vehicles including the 2008 ford focus and the 2008 ford escape. in the past decade, osram has collaborated with ford to bring distinctive interior lighting into many products. past programs have included ford’s corporate green led lighting in the late 1990s and a more sophisticated white interior with satin nickel accents for the lincoln navigator.
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Solar-Powered LED Lamp Tracks Your Home's Energy Use
Designer Beverly Ng created the solar-powered LED Spark Lamp as a decorative way to reduce energy consumption - but, perhaps more importantly, to let homeowners know of their daily energy use. In Sweden, the government is responding to the energy crisis by installing smart meters in future homes, which will provide real-time feedback of energy use on the Internet. Homeowners are encouraged to set monthly energy goals in terms of money and/or watts. They can log into their online accounts to view their home´s data and find tips on energy conservation.
But realizing that visiting a Web site isn't the most engaging way to view this data, Ng developed the Spark Lamp to enhance the experience by extending the feedback beyond the computer screen and into everyday objects in the home.
The lamp concept itself is engaging and simple: during the day, you turn the lamp upside down on a windowsill to recharge the solar panels. When turned over, the lamp looks a bit like a small potted plant. At night, when you turn the lamp upright and switch it on, the lamp (equipped with Wi-Fi) flickers in different colors to signal your home´s power consumption level for the month compared to your goal.
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China's first LED display system installed at Olympic basketball venue
China's first high-definition LED display system has been installed in the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium, which will be used as a sport venue during the Olympic Games. Xinhua reports that the system, set up on Wednesday, is currently being checked for possible bugs. According to Beijing Urban Construction Group representative Wang Zhiming, the display system's specialty lies in its ability to capture intense, unique moments to be played-back on the big screen. With real-time synchronization, live information broadcasts, and space for advertising, the new system is able to meet the needs of Olympic basketball and NBA competitions. The system is made up of three parts: a ring screen, a points control system, and a "funnel screen," so called due to the 22 ton weight attributed to the center of the display.
The "funnel screen" is divided into five layers, with the longest diameter at 11 meters long. From the bottom up, the first layer ring screen has a pixel spacing of 20 mm, which can thus display all sorts of fonts for text and pictures. The next layer from the bottom is composed of pixels spaced 10 mm apart, and is used to display video information on all four of the screen's sides, whether the information be provided with the same signal or not. The screen colors used are realistic, strong, rich, give a strong sense of dimensionality, and most importantly, highly visible.
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Giant LED display shines at Beijing Olympics
How do you choose a panel technology for a display that's bigger--at 33 by 33 feet--than the side of a barn? The liquid-crystal and plasma technologies used in large-screen home TVs are out of the question. CRTs are out too, and organic electroluminescence doesn't even merit mention as a candidate. There is only one existing technology that can be tapped to display images large enough for arena use and are viewable even in direct sunlight: the light-emitting diode. Building humongous panels is very difficult. Today, the largest LCD that can be manufactured is 108 inches on the diagonal. For plasma display panels (PDPs), the largest possible screen size is 150 inches (diagonal). To go larger than that, special production equipment would have to be developed.
Projection technology might seem like a solution, but it's not. Indoors, front-projection is feasible. But in big, enclosed arenas such as those at the Beijing Olympics, the presence of competing light sources tends to dull the projected images. Naturally, things get even worse for a front projector in an outdoor stadium. That is why Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. is installing its LED Astrovision technology in China. The Japanese consumer electronics giant will supply the Beijing Games with 25 LED Astrovision video display screens, delivering a total of almost 4,000 square feet.
