OLEDs have been hailed as the Next Big Thing in lighting for years now. But beyond digital picture frames and bendy display screens that make Gumby look like a slab of concrete, we haven’t seen a whole lot from the tech that’s supposed to revolutionize the way we illuminate our world.
That’s slowly changing, and to that end, Konica Minolta has enlisted a handful of architects and designers to envision the future of OLEDs, from floating bus maps and giant public lighting “vessels” to glowstick-like jewelry that can double as safety reflectors. They’re only concepts, but they do offer a foretaste of the expanded role artificial lighting will play if and when OLEDs finally deliver on their promise.
First a primer on OLEDs: They stand for organic light-emitting diodes, and, instead of flashing light from a single-point bulb (like incandescents and even LEDs), they glow at the surface, enveloping their surroundings in a diffuse, ghostly halo. Environmentalists go gaga for them because they stay cooler than LEDs, and they’re more energy-efficient than fluorescents — plus they don’t contain mercury. And architects and designers go gaga for them because they can be bent, rolled, and otherwise manipulated into any shape imaginable.

OLEDs have been hailed as the Next Big Thing in lighting for years now. But beyond digital picture frames and bendy display screens that make Gumby look like a slab of concrete, we haven’t seen a whole lot from the tech that’s supposed to revolutionize the way we illuminate our world.
That’s slowly changing, and to that end, Konica Minolta has enlisted a handful of architects and designers to envision the future of OLEDs, from floating bus maps and giant public lighting “vessels” to glowstick-like jewelry that can double as safety reflectors. They’re only concepts, but they do offer a foretaste of the expanded role artificial lighting will play if and when OLEDs finally deliver on their promise.
First a primer on OLEDs: They stand for organic light-emitting diodes, and, instead of flashing light from a single-point bulb (like incandescents and even LEDs), they glow at the surface, enveloping their surroundings in a diffuse, ghostly halo. Environmentalists go gaga for them because they stay cooler than LEDs, and they’re more energy-efficient than fluorescents — plus they don’t contain mercury. And architects and designers go gaga for them because they can be bent, rolled, and otherwise manipulated into any shape imaginable. Leer más “Architects and Designers Illuminate the Future with OLEDs”
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