Lextar Electronic’s newly developed dual-sided LED panel light Harmonia has won the Good Design Award 2013, one of the most influential design awards in Asia. The light’s simple and clean appearance, dual-sided LED that gives a harmonious lighting environment was awarded the Good Design Award. This is the third time that Lextar has received recognition from Good Design Award in Japan. The company had previously clinched two prizes at the awards in 2012 with two LED bulb designs. Harmonia is expected to debut in October at the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Autumn Edition).

Taiwanese design company Gixia Group was invited by German Vitra Design Museum to display its Luxifer LED bulbs at the Lightopia exhibition. According to the group, this is the first LED luminaire manufactured by a Taiwanese company displayed at the exhibition. The exhibition will also be traveling to other museums around the world.

Goldman Sachs latest global LED industry report pointed out decreasing LED lighting products are driving LED lighting market growth. Goldman Sachs believes LED and general lighting demands have climbed up 70% and 40% respectively in 2013 and 2014. The financial institute upheld its previous outlook that LED lighting penetration rate will reach 70% by 2020, but indicated future lighting demand growths will be much faster than expected.

Arbrux Manufacturing, the leading designer and manufacturer of floating lake fountains, pond aerators and marine dock de-icers, has announced plans to develop an LED light for fountains, ponds and reflecting pools after the success of its submersible light kit, which launched earlier this year.

The Satechi Touch USB LED Lamp turns nearly any empty bottle into a table lamp. Rather than throw away empty bottles, simply place the lamp into the opening of a bottle, plug the lamp into a USB port, and touch the silver top of the lamp for an instant environmentally-friendly desk lamp.

Fortified Bicycle Alliance founded by 10 MIT students recently launched a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter for their latest anti-theft LED bike lights Aviator Front Light and Afterburner Rear Light. The new lights are available in four different lumen models of 30, 60,150 and 300 lumens.

A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture blog entry introduces Purdue University's research resulgs on LED grow lights. Banks of LED illuminate plants in greenhouses. Purdue University researchers discovered that LEDs can provide a more beneficial light spectrum to greenhouse plants than conventional lighting while using 75 percent less electricity. 

Every year, we are reminded of the hidden beauty that lies beneath the surface of nature's foliage with the coming of fall and changing color of leaves. SoLux® natural daylight lamps reveal the true colors and beauty in painting by Van Gogh, Poplars in Autumn, and others by Monet, Rembrandt, and Picasso.

Samsung announced it will be launching a bendable OLED smartphone in Oct., 2013, according to reports by Verge, Gizmodo, BBC and others. The flexible OLED screens will be introduced into the smartphone model GALAXY Note 3, and only a limited number will be sold. As the first OLED smartphone to enter the market, it is expected to catalyze OLEDs commercial applications.

Global market research institute TrendForce Corp. announces today that it is going to release a new website focusing on professional lighting design– BeLight.com. Aiming at international lighting design and lighting industry for next generation, TrendForce hopes to transform the sophisticate preference in the lighting world into a commonsense for more people to live in.

James Turrell’s first LED lighting exhibition in a New York museum since 1980 focuses on the artist’s groundbreaking explorations of perception, light, color, and space, with a special focus on the role of site specificity in his practice. At its core is Aten Reign (2013), a major new project that recasts the Guggenheim rotunda as an enormous volume filled with shifting artificial and natural light. 

LSI Industries Inc. introduced the LED XLPG, a new LED linear parking garage fixture. Designed to meet the needs of the parking garage space, LSI's XLPG is purpose built to deliver optimum performance using significantly less energy as compared to traditional light sources. Energy-efficient LEDs combined with designed precision optics optimize light output for uniform illumination without any 'cave effect' or glare. Further, the XLPG has a number of features to ensure easy installation and virtually no maintenance, making it an affordable value and the LED solution of choice for new construction and retrofit parking garage applications.

A feature packed lightmeter designed to accurately measure illuminance, color and spectral data for solid state lighting (SSL), CFL, traditional lighting & displays has been introduced by Gigahertz-Optik.

General Electric (GE) highlights top hotel lighting trends in 2014 in a recent article. Hotels are big business. In the United States alone, hotels comprise more than 5 billion square feet of space according to the U.S. Green Building Council® (USGBC) and spend in excess of US$ 7.5 billion on energy each year as cited by The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

A Canadian team has launched a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter for its Dodecado, a dodecahedron light with magnetic properties that allows it to be attached to another light, and rearranged or sculpted according to the user’s needs. The lights are scheduled for production in Oct. 2013 with first delivery scheduled in Dec. 2013. So far the Canadian team has raised CA$ 5,214 (US$ 5,069) for its project on Kickstarter.

Lighting design, installation and maintenance company Weblight has won a contract to replace the lamps in over 240 of Spirit Pub Company's pubs with Philips Master LED lamps.

Cities and cultures invariably craft ways to express their identity in visceral ways. The most revered of these public statements become a point of pride in the community and a compelling destination for visitors, according to a recent PSFK Labs article. Supported by the evolution of digital LED technology, we’ve witnessed a number of creative uses of light to achieve iconic status through blending elements of a culture with the unique deployment of light. These installations work to capture the permanence of a place and maintain ties to tradition, all while pointing to new and cutting edge technology and signaling a optimistic outlook of innovations still to come.

A recent article by PSFK labs explores the relationship between lighting products and human interaction. Could light be used to bridge two remote experiences? If so, what kind of stories could it tell? In a trend we are calling Remotely Connected, PSFK Labs explores how synced lighting experiences are helping bring to life the unique connections between people. With their ability to convey shared experiences, awareness or proximity, these lighting displays are being creatively deployed to evoke an emotional response between people.

In a collaboration project between Philips and Germany’s Hochschule Wismar Architectural Lighting students this year, 10 students designed an installation entitled "Light Beats." It is an exploration of the relationship between light and different cultures via several types of music. The lighting concept was implemented with innovative LED technology and with the support of the lighting partners, providing technical expertise and equipment. It's offered the opportunity to play with a translucent glass facade on two floors, a terrace, a footbridge and a glass facade to the ground floor.  

NliteN has just added the dimmable 2D-Lux™ Smart LED Disk (SLEDD) to its campaign on Indiegogo. The 2D-Lux SLEDD, a 60W-incandescent-replacement LED smart "bulb", adds an Atmel AVR microcontroller, USB interface, and hardware-expansion pins to the 2D-Lite™ LED Disk (Sept 4, 2013 PR here), bringing intelligence, programmability, additional hardware functions, and the ability for consumers to install, and run, light bulb apps, including smartphone control, at very low cost -- about the average price of "dumb", connectivity-incapable, LED bulbs at most retailers - US$ 25.

Lighting plays a vital role in today’s retail environments, maximizing shopping experiences and making merchandise appear its best. GE’s Infusion™ LED Module product line offers a versatile LED lighting solution that provides highly flexible LED lighting options critical for retailers who want to highlight certain products or create emphasis through a display.

Power management company Eaton today announced that its Cooper Lighting division has provided products and solutions to help Industrial Developments International (IDI), a privately held real estate company with offices across U.S., reduce energy costs at its Jurupa Valley, Calif., facility. By utilizing a range of exterior LED solutions, the company will achieve proper illumination while also realizing a total energy savings of more than 50 percent compared to metal halide equivalents.

ilumi solutions, a company focused on mobile LED lighting technology, recently launched a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter for their color tuning LED bulbs. The RGB LED bulbs share similar features to the Philips Hue bulbs, as it can be color tuned via a smartphone or tablet Bluetooth, and works on both Apple and Android systems. With 51 days to go for their fundraising campaign, ilumi has received backing from 180 supporters, with funds totaling US$ 17,325 as of date.

Philips has partnered up with Perkins Products, a provider of education, services and products to the blind, deafblind, and those with disabilities to develop LightAide, a new LED device designed as a teaching tool for children with low vision or other disabilities. Arrays of multi-colored LED lights in LightAide can be programmed and manipulated in various ways to help children get ready to learn reading, math and critical interactive skills. 

Digital Lumens today announced that DiloSpinnbau, a manufacturer of universal and high-capacity carding machines used to process nonwoven fibers, has upgraded its 6,600 square meter manufacturing facility to the Digital Lumens Intelligent Lighting System, saving 91 percent of its lighting energy costs annually.

Philips Hue has been installed at the Photon Project’s Photon Pod at the London Design Festival. The all-glass pod is a prototype for the Photon Project that will collect invaluable data and insights on the links between light, health and wellbeing over a planned four-year period. The Photon Project is a groundbreaking scientific study initiated by glass engineering company Cantifix, and Oxford University, to explore in detail the effects of light on the biological clock – which in turn affects the health, wellbeing, mood and behavior of each of us.

U.S.-based LED lighting designer Joey Nicotera has unveiled a colorful suspended interior installation for the Boston Science Museum recently. The Capturing the Arc display is made of 27 LED acrylic arcs etched with small dots in a grid, and appears transparent when the power is turned off. The arcs uses a total of 4,385 color changing LEDs, and nearly one mile of wiring. The arc’s large surface to weight ratio allows it move freely to the lobby breeze.

Over 2000 Robe Lighting LEDWash fixtures are in action on a series of high profile stands – including Audi, BMW, Mini. Opel, Porsche, Seat and Volkswagen, at the 65th International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany.

Philips Hue, has been installed at the Photon Project’s Photon Pod at the London Design Festival. The all-glass pod is a prototype for the Photon Project that will collect invaluable data and insights on the links between light, and health and wellbeing over a planned four-year period. The Photon Project is a scientific study initiated by glass engineering company Cantifix, and Oxford University, to explore in detail the effects of light on the biological clock – which in turn affects the health, wellbeing, mood and behavior of each of us.

Sapphire substrate applications have shifted from LED to smartphones, according to a report by Taiwanese media UDN. Apple was the first to apply the material in its iPhone home button, and has recently expanded sapphire substrate applications to fingerprint recognition sensors, camera outer case, and even the entire smartphone monitor. As a result, Taiwanese manufacturers are close to full production capacity. ACME Electronics Corp. subsidiaries including USI Optronics Corp., Crystal Applied Technology Inc., ProCrystal Technology Co., and Crystalwise Technology Inc. have launched a new wave of expansion.