ams, a high performance sensor solutions provider, has cooperated with Qualcomm Technologies to focus on the development of a 3D depth sensing camera solution for mobile phone applications such as 3D imaging and scanning and biometric face authentication. The two companies aim to dedicate their technology expertise and engineering force to design a 3D stereo camera solution for Android-based mobile phones. ams provides its VCSEL light sources and optical IR pattern technology on the base of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon™ Mobile Platforms to suppourt various applicati...

Seven-Eleven Japan will grow vegetables for its own salads products sold at convenience stores by establishing a plant factory in Tokyo, reported Nikkei Asian Review. Seven-Eleven is the largest convenience store operator in Japan and it began the project in order to reduce the supply risks caused by weather. The indoor farming facility will be set up in Kanagawa Prefecture to produce lettuce for stores in the Greater Tokyo Area. (Image: Osram) According to the report, the facility will cost about 6 billion yen (US$53.3 million) and is scheduled to operate in J...

Electronica 2018, the biannual electronic components exhibition, was held in Munich, Germany, from November 13th to 16th. Several world leading LED producers joined the event to showcase their novel technology developments and innovative applications. Korea-based LG Innotek and Everlight from Taiwan both participated in Electronica 2018 and demonstrated their LED products and applications. LG Innotek presented its automotive and electronic components for electric and smart vehicles during the event and aims to increase its presence in the European market. The compan...

A new study published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology reported that exposure to blue light would decrease blood pressure and reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. In previous studies, it is shown that UV light can help the skin to release nitric oxide and decrease blood pressure. Researchers from the University of Surrey and Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf have collaborated with Philips to learn whether body exposure to blue light also has the same effect as visible blue light is not carcinogenic compared to UV light. (Image: ...

Imec, the Belgium-based nanoelectronics research center, has worked with Ghent University and contact lens producer SEED to develop a contact lens integrated with LED light. The lens is presented at imec technology forum Japan (ITF Japan 2018) on November 19th, 2018. The contact lens with an integrated LED light is made of hydrogel-based material and is embedded with an ultra-thin silicon microchip, radio‐frequency (RF) antenna for wireless energy transfer, and stretchable thin‐film interconnections. imec and CMST, an imec research group at Ghent University...

Big lighting brands have continually transformed their positioning from luminaires providers to high technology developers. Apart from Osram revising its organization structure and moving towards to digitalization, Signify has also been expanding its presence in the market of smart applications and establishing IoT systems in Asia. (Image: Signify) According to the report by Digital News Asia, Signify has launched its Interact IoT platform in Kuala Lumpur on November 14th. Alok Ghose, CEO of Signify ASEAN, said that the company will assist Malaysia for t...

Serving as a key technology in the development of autonomous vehicle, LiDAR has gained increasing attentions from the industry with more and more companies continually advancing their LiDAR technology development. Two LiDAR companies, Innoviz and Robosense, announced that their cutting-edge LiDAR solutions have been honored with CES 2019 Innovation Awards. Chinese LiDAR company RoboSense said that its RS-IPLS Intelligent Perception LiDAR System was named as a CES 2019 Innovation Awards Honoree which was released during CES Unveiled N...

With the help of Current, powered by GE, the City of San Diego has begun smart city project since last year and has released several new digital applications to improve parking, traffic and public safety on city streets. The city has continued to increase the installation of Current’s CityIQ sensor nodes on LED streetlights in the city. In total, the infrastructure project will include 4,200 new CityIQ nodes across 14,000 new individually metered LED fixtures. Together with a lighting control platform, the project will boost LED streetlight efficiency by an...

U.S.-based material producer PPG and wireless power company Powercast have announced a joint development agreement to produce wirelessly powered printed electronics products for applications such as smart consumer packaging and smart ID cards. By leveraging the expertise from each other, the project will combine substrate and conductive inks from PPG and receiver technology of Powercast to develop LED-based wireless illumination solutions. With the technology, consumer packaging can light up itself to showcase products on a shelf. For smart ID cards, it can be illumina...

Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a flexible sensor embedded with red and infrared OLED which is able to map blood-oxygen levels over large areas of skin, tissue and organs. By tracking blood-oxygen, the OLED sensor could help to monitor healing wounds.

Apple has reportedly been granted a patent related to Micro LED display which provides an angle-of-view adjustment layer that involves holographic technology, according to an article by Patently Apple. The patent application, titled “Display with Holographic Angle-of-View Adjustment Structure” describes that by adding an angle-of-view adjustment layer on the array of display pixels, the viewing angle for users is enriched. The angle-of-viewing adjustment layer may be formed from holographic structure. (Image: the United States Patent and Trademark Offi...

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has released the second in a three-part series of standards which addresses LED radiation measurements for plant growth and development. (Image: ASABE) ASABE is a standards developing organization dedicated to advancing applicable engineering methods for agriculture, food and biological systems. The standard, ANSI/ASABE S642, titled “Recommended Methods for Measurement and Testing of LED Products for Plant Growth and Development,” describes the methods used f...

With the drives from autonomous car development, LiDAR technology has been under the spotlight. Startups which focus on the technology have also gained attentions from the related industry and continued to unveil their development and updates about the technology. Luminar, a LiDAR startup that aim to increase the accessibility of the technology, has recruited Brent Schwarz, a veteran in the LiDAR sensor industry who has experiences at Velodyne and established his own company, Tyto LiDAR. As his LiDAR startup was acquired by Otto, which was then bought by Uber...

Pioneer and MooVita, an A*STAR spinoff company focusing on autonomous vehicle, are going to initiate a trial run of an autonomous shuttle bus equipped with Pioneer’s 3D-LiDAR sensor within the campus of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The two companies expect to commercialize the service of the level four autonomous driving with the testing.

Porta Nova, a rose grower based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, is expanding its Philips GreenPower LED toplighting to trail a dedicated rose spectrum which will increase light levels year-round without increasing heat. The company decided to expand its invest of the lighting coverage to 5,000 square meters.

The 2018 World Flora Exposition opened on November 3rd in Taichung, Taiwan. Signify has provided its lighting service to the pavilion of the Netherlands and helped to build the main installation art of the exposition. The company has also worked with the city of Taichung to set up LED streetlights with smart systems. 

Finnish autonomous vehicle developer Sensible 4 announced its partnership with Japanese retail brand MUJI to develop an autonomous shuttle bus which is able to work under any weather condition. Sensible 4 will provide its expertise in autonomous driving technology for functions of the bus such as positioning, navigation and obstacle detection, while MUJI will be in charge of user experience and the look of the vehicle. (Image: Sensible 4) The autonomous shuttle bus, named Gacha, will be showcased in Helsinki in March 2019 and start operating in three Finnish cities t...

On October 30th, a patent was granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to Apple for its “Exterior Lighting and Warning System” which uses a lighting system to indicate warnings and information from the outside of a car, reported Appleinsider.

GCS Holdings reported that it has delivered its VCSEL sample products to clients in the U.S. including Google and Facebook for data transmitting applications. The validation of the products would be completed soon and mass production and shipment will start next year, reported Economic Daily News, a Taiwanese media. According to the report, GCS has provided its receiver (Rx) radio frequency (RF) for Facebook and it will begin to supply the transmitter products from next year. 3D sensing has been the field most of the VCSEL companies focus on. To differenti...

Vertical integrated LED company Lextar is going to announce its I-Mini Square module for automotive tail lamp application. Adopted with Lextar’s latest Mini LED technology, this automotive module can display dynamic images with RGB full color screens. Lextar will debut its concept of application at the biannual Electronica 2018 held in Munich from November 13th to 16th. According to the company,

LiDAR technology developers Quanergy and Innovusion have respectively received funding for their technology development and products production.

Automotive LED light supplier Excellence Optoelectronics Inc (EOI) has reported its continuous yearly growth in the past three quarters of 2018 and announced that it plans to develop Mini LED and Micro LED displays for automotive applications and larger size displays. (Image: EOI) EOI has supplied its Flexible Uniflex rear lamp module and LED light sources for the center high-mounted stop lamp (CHMSL) for Tesla Model 3. Currently it ships 5000-6000 units per week for Tesla Model 3 and the company is looking forward to increasing the shipment. Si...

DRAM supplier Apacer is going showcase its lighting inspection solutions targeting horticulture and agricultural lighting at Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Autumn Edition) from October 27th to 30th, 2018.

The applications of IoT have been under the spotlight in many parts of the industry. Osram, as a high-tech company, has presented eight approaches in healthcare where IoT can be applied to solve problems.

Taiwanese panel producer Innolux has announced the restructuring of the company’s organization. Robert Shiao, the prior president of the company, has become Vice Chairman. James Yang was promoted as President from Vice President and will oversee the business unit, operation unit and manufacturer unit of Innolux. According to Jim Hung, Chairman of Innolux, the new management team would strengthen the flexibility and competitiveness of the company.

Samsung Electronics has worked closely with the filming and entertainment industry to promote its Onyx LED Cinema. The company has announced a new CSI Leasing program to service its existing and future customers as well as sharing the list of certified resellers for the Samsung Onyx at this year’s ShowEast event.

LEDinside forecasts that the development of Mini LED will accelerate in 2019 and 2020 and its market value will reach US$ 1699 million by 2022. Several industry players including San’an, HC Semitek, Epistar, NationStar, Harvatek, and Macroblock have reported their progress of Mini LED development. Meanwhile, panel producers such as AUO, BOE, Innolux and JDI have also unveiled applications adopting Mini LED technology.

What is road driving going to be like in the future? Volkswagen has displayed its new vehicle lighting systems to show automotive LED lightings which project information onto the road and provide communication functions between cars to further improve road safety.

Mini LED is one of the key technologies for 2019 and will be making its way into the displays of consumer electronics. On the other hand, Micro LED technology, which has been on the spotlight in the recent years, is expected to be applied on displays in the market by 2021, according to the forecast of LEDinside.

Alabama Power has established an innovation project to grow food in a shipping container retrofitted with LED lighting provided by Freight Farm. The aim of the project is to find out if the cost of using electricity to power indoor agriculture is more efficient and feasible in comparison with traditional agriculture.