The Holiday Inn chain of hotels is switching over to energy efficient LED lighting for their signage, which will lead to an estimated $4.4 million in savings annually.

Scientists at the University of Washington are working on a new breed of contact lenses with embedded LEDs which allow information to be displayed to the wearer.

For fans of light writing, there is now a handy LED light specifically designed for those familiar with graffiti using a spray can.  The fake aerosol can, designed by Aïssa Logerot, is called Haloand simply replaces the nozzle with a tiny LED.  Logerot has a number of innovative light designs and is currently based in Paris.

The real creativity in the Halo design comes in the possibilities of manipulation.  The light’s brightness can be changed and the colors are interchangeable.  The power is generated by shaking the bottle, just like a spray can.  The design reminds us of the WiiSpray and [...]

These three examples of reactive lights got us thinking about how far night-lights have come from their humble origins as candles and tiny, single-bulb lamps plugged into wall sockets.

Motion sensor: While traditional night lights stay on all night regardless if anyone is in the room, the Philips SpotOn only turns on if motion is detected. Leaving the light off to save energy when it’s not needed.

Motion & Photo Sensors: The Datexx ZenLight LED uses photo sensors to emit a dim glow in dark settings and a bright light when motion is detected.

From Night Lights to Clocks: The Black & White [...]

Last month we showed you Sparkle Labs’ new DIY ‘Discover Electronics’ kits, for both learning and play. The company has shrunk the spirit of fun conjoined with scientific exploration into a wallet-sized package with their new printed circuit business cards. The cards, a wonderful union of charming graphic and electronic design, can be printed from PDF onto any heavy stock paper, and then, using materials from the Discover Electronics kit, turned into a functioning circuit that lights LEDs when exposed to darkness. Sparkle Labs says they are working on more small paper circuits.
[via Core77]

Bacardi is touring its LED bottle wall around Toronto festivals this summer. The mobile fixture is made up of 253 bottle sized holes arranged in an 11 x 23 grid with LED lights in the back which are computer controlled. The piece is participatory as well; the wall doesn’t come with the bottles in them. Seems like a good way to collect bottles for recycling no?

[via rubbishcorp, photo via likecool]

Urban Alliance, a media architecture collective, recently unveiled the Moodwall, an eighty foot interactive LED installation that mimics the actions of passing objects or people.  Sensors pick up on moving objects and project an “infrared-like image” on the wallpaper made up of 2500 LEDs.  The lights are situated behind a ribbed semi-transparent wall which enable those outside of the tunnel from seeing the projections and make it less vulnerable to graffiti.
The goal is to create a space that greets pedestrians with a playful light while deterring crime in public spaces.  The project won a competition for ideas in unsafe areas [...]

Sharp’s new line of LED bulbs can change their white point from a set of eight color temperatures, allowing one to change the color temperature in any room via remote control from warmer to cooler, depending on use or occasion. The bulbs last 40,000 hours, and consume only between 4.1 and 7.5 watts, depending on model. The bulbs also emit virtually no light on the waveband that typically attracts insects.
[via Gizmodo]

Designer Taikkun Lin has prototyped a prayer wheel that harvests energy and converts it into electricity as it’s turned. Built with used bicycle parts, the LED-embedded wheels are also intended to provide lighting as they are spun.
Prayer wheels are found in Tibet where they are constantly turned by tourists. While Taikkun has found a way to utilize them, he doesn’t address how they can be implemented without affecting the historical structures of the temples.
[via Core 77]

At first glance, Hironao Tsuboi’ s watch looks like an ordinary piece of jewelry, or a plain watch band. A hidden funcionality is revealed when embedded LEDs illuminate two rows of numbers displaying the time.

Using LED lights attached to the back of sheep, herders in Wales have created a massive LED display on the side of a hill to play PONG, simulate fireworks and even crop together the Mona Lisa.  The extreme sheep LED art project was sponsored by Samsung’s Smart LED technology.

[via swissmiss]

Media architecture collective, Urban Alliance, recently installed what they call “interactive urban wallpaper” in a pedestrian tunnel in Amsterdam.  Made from 2,500 LEDs set behind a ribbed, semi-transparent wall, the lights react to people’s movement as they they walk through the tunnel.  In addition to making it less vulnerable to graffiti, the curves in the wall also enable the images to be seen more clearly from outside the tunnel.
Urban Alliance is composed of Dutch architects Studio Klink, production company Illuminate, artist Matthias Oostrik and design and construction firm Cube.
[via Dezeen]
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We are all familiar with the Microsoft Surface, the multi-touch interactive table, but recently Microsoft unveiled some new developments they are hoping to implement into the next version.  At TechFest 2009 Microsoft’s Research and Development team are showcasing new projection technology that allows interaction with the Surface above the actual device.  The new upgrade, codenamed SecondLight, includes an additional projector hidden inside the Surface product body that will detect a basic hand held viewfinder held over the screen that can be used to project additional images on.
The employee demonstrating the upgraded device shows the ability of the extra projector to [...]

We wrote last week about a colorful LED installation on the streets of Paris that blew us away, today we’re inspired by Multiverse, a massive installation by American artist Leo Villareal that features approximately 41,000 LED nodes that run through a 200-foot-long tunnel in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C..
As passerbyers move between the East and West buildings on an airport style people mover, the zillions of lights flicker on and off over head creating rhythmic patterns and abstract configurations.  The custom designed software also has an element of chance built into it, so it’s unlikely that anyone [...]

PATACHROMO, a brilliant installation by French artists Superbien, was based on the principles of CHROMOtherapy seen through the lense of PATAphysics . Presented as a succession of animated light frames lasting about 2 minutes each, the PATACHROMO program is provided as a tool for passers-by to face the grey Parisian winter weather with more serenity. How? According to the project page on Superbien’s website: “by exposing one’s chakras to the light diffused by the LED structure of the installation (covering a surface of 6.65 sq meters).”
We love the idea of walking down a dark and lonely Parisian street and stumbling [...]