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Apple looks set to include a li-fi capability in future versions of the iPhone, meaning it can access high-speed data using lighting.
The backing of a tech giant like Apple would transform the technology from scientific curiousity into a mainstream technique for accessing the internet, and provide a huge boost to the lighting industry.
The iPhone’s operating system now openly references li-fi capability in its programming code.
Li-fi uses modulated visible light from LEDs to transmit data to enabled devices. It’s invisible to the human eye, and is much faster than traditional wifi.
Apple already holds a patent on using its camera to capture data as well as images, so the company is well placed to exploit the new technology.
It’s not the first time this year that Apple has been making news in the lighting industry.
Last month the company added a blue-light reduction feature into an update to its operating system in what was widely seen as the the first acknowledgement by a major manufacturer that blue light can be a health hazard.
In January Apple received its first ever patent for a lighting system, in a move that has again raised the issue of the company’s intentions in the lighting market.
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Apple, Sony Unveil Lighting Innovations
Comments off · Posted by admin in LED, LED downlights
Global tech brands Apple and Sony both reveal new luminaire designs while in our featured interview we talk to iGuzzini Middle East chief Richard Holmes. Lux Today webcast for Jan 26 2016 by Courtney Ferguson.
apple led · apple lighting · iguzzine · lux review · Novel Energy Lighting · sony led · sony lighting
Apple’s addition of a blue-light reduction feature into an update to its operating system is the first acknowledgement by a major manufacturer that blue light can be a health hazard.
The latest update of its operating system, iOS9.3, includes a night-time screen mode with reduced intensity in the blue part of the visible spectrum. The move will be seen as an endorsement of those who have been arguing that the health issues of blue light need to be addressed by industry.
It’s long been known that blue light or, to be more accurate, the quantity of blue within the white light spectrum, helps to suppress the production of the sleep hormone melatonin. Exposure to light at night has been linked to conditions like cancers, diabetes, heart disease and obesity – and while the jury is still out on how blue light can trigger these disorders, its deleterious effect on health is well established.
A recent Harvard Medical School Health Letter claimed: ‘light at night is bad for your health, and exposure to blue light emitted by electronics and energy-efficient lightbulbs may be especially so’.
LED lighting has a pronounced spike in the blue part of the spectrum, as the vast majority of white LED lighting is the result of a conversion of pure blue light using phosphors.
The European Commission-funded Lighting for People, a web-based platform of research on solid-state lighting in Europe, has published recommendations for lighting at home, which include:
Provide lighting that is cool in appearance and at higher levels during the daytime, but shift to warmer light at a lower illumination level in the evening.
Applying the positive nature of blue-enriched light, provide higher lighting levels in workplaces to improve alertness.
Excessive use of tablets and computer screens in the evening will delay sleepiness.
Have warm, low level illumination at home in the evening and refrain from using blue-enriched screens during that time.
There are already examples of installations featuring so-called circadian lighting, where the colour and intensity of light varies thoughout the day to match our natural rhythms. At the professional end, lighting companies are investigating wireless lighting solutions, based on LEDs capable of shifting their white light from cool to warm depending on the time of day. And at the consumer end of things there are a number of lamps coming on stream that claim to support the circadian rhythm, either by shifting their colour temperature, or because they are aimed directly at the late-night lighting market.
A recent installation at Kongsgardmoen School at Kongberg, in Norway, is designed to assist teachers in their interaction with students by giving them the ability to change the tone of the lighting depending on the class activity. Early reports suggest that students are reacting positively to the new lighting, with improved concentration and behavior throughout the day.
But established metrics remain elusive. Practitioners say hard data is needed to create a standard for what circadian lighting should look like from a technical standpoint. Typically, the lighting industry delivers product within the capability of current technology and the developments around the LED revolution has brought this topic into a sharper focus.
Photograph by japanexperterna.se
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The newly-opened Apple store in Brussels has given the world the first glimpse of the company’s new – and newly patented – lighting system
Lux reports: Apple has been granted a patent for the ceiling lighting system it has developed for its new-look stores in a move that has again raised the issue of the company’s intentions in the lighting market.
The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple US Patent No. 9,217,247 
for its new illuminated ceilings, which will be the showpiece feature of its next-generation stores. One of the first in the world to sport the new look is the company’s outlet in Brussels. The fully-illuminated LED ceiling is interspersed with narrow linear lighting troughs which include spotlights and other services, a design that is not wholly unfamiliar to lighting professionals working in the retail sector.
Apple’s retail team believes uniform lighting offers the best way to showcase its technology products. The troughs can accommodate cameras, speakers, alarms, fire suppression systems and, it’s speculated, the company’s iBeacon Bluetooth transmitters, which would allow customer tracking, in-store location, payments and marketing push notifications.
While it’s not unusual for Apple to patent innovations outside its core computer technologies – after all, the stores’ famous glass staircases are protected by copyright law – the patenting of a luminaire design raises fears in the lighting industry that Apple has long-term ambitions for the sector.
It’s known that the company has a lighting research team for instance, and lighting control firms are fearful of being disintermediated in a world dominated by the so-called ‘Internet of Things’, where connected IP-enabled devices such as luminaires and lamps can be controlled by smart phones, smart watches and tablets.
- The Internet of Things and Lighting will be the subject of a special session, incorporating presentations and debates, at the LuxLive Middle East 2016 exhibition and conference in Abu Dhabi on 13 April. Entry is free – for more information and to register, visitwww.luxlive.ae
Picture: Julian Vanbelle
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