Philips Lighting Innovation Concepts gives us a glimpse of the future, now!

Who says lighting is boring????? Philips Philippines’ Lighting Division recently showed me just how exciting their lighting products have become.

By shifting to LEDs, Philips has already moved consumers away from inefficient and more costly lighting into more energy-efficient lighting in offices and homes. And at a recent fun, fun blogger event where they introduced six innovation concepts in lighting, I realized that Philips has crossed from functional, hardware store basics into interior and exterior design that incorporates Flexibility, Controllability, Alternative Energy, Connectivity, Dynamism and Materials Integration elements.

Landmarks here and abroad that are lighted up by Philips LEDs

The whole presentation, featuring the entertaining and funny Gabe Mercado, was seamlessly integrated into a moving diorama that drew us into the mini stories while holding us spellbound as each concept was presented experientially.

Alternative Energy

Wouldn’t you love the idea of lights on streets, parks, stadiums brightening up as cars and people move closer to them and dim as you move away? By detecting motion, these kind of lights only go to maximum brightness when they are needed and dim when idle.

Solar-powered LED lighting is what Philips is experimenting with now. Solar panels convert solar energy to electrical energy and store it in the battery. At night, the battery is discharged and electrical energy is released. Philips solar-powered LED lights are easy to install and maintain. In fact their local application which is close to our hearts is in Yolanda-hit areas. With electricity posts down, Philips was able to provide light for Yolanda survivors by harnessing the power of the sun.

Sample of the solar light that Philips used in Yolanda-hit areas

Connectivity

Imagine controlling your lights at home remotely. With Philips Hue, it is already possible to do that using one’s smartphone and Android devices. Not only that. You can choose the mood color you want and when you want it turned on.

I can already think of some uses for Philips Hue:
* Mood lighting – red for a party or romantic ambiance, blue to relax and calm you down after a long day, green to rest the eyes, and white for general purposes
* Keep intruders away – turn lights in different rooms on and off even if you are at the office or on a trip so it looks like there are people at home.

Controllability

Who has not fumbled in the dark for a light switch? I have. Not just at home but in the restrooms of restaurants and other public places. Now, how would you like a light switch with presence, light and temperature sensors that detect the body’s magnetic field and automatically open with a striking wall-wash lighting effect. Perfect for commercial establishments and high-end residential units, the Antumbra comes in three types of panels — Antumbra Button, Antumbra Touch, and Antumbra Display — that allows the user to perform different functions.

Watch this video.

Dynamism

Baguio City Hall. People Power Monument. Transformation Sculpture (BGC). Starbucks on 32nd Ave. (BGC). NLEX. What do they have in common? They are all lighted up by Philips Color Kinetics.

Historical and modern landmarks all over the world are now enhanced with lights that can be changed depending on the occasion. Check out below how the Empire State Building can change.

And right after Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda, locally) hit the Philippines, the Empire State Building lit up with our flag colors in support of all those affected. Here is a screenshot from its Twitter account.

More and more landmarks are starting to use Philips’ powerful LED lights and advanced digital control technology to create breathtaking imagery. Used for interiors and exteriors, Color Kinetics transform spaces and trigger the imagination.

Materials Integration

Can you imagine cloth panels that move and come alive with lights? That is now possible with Philips Materials Integration using Kvadrat Soft Cells. In Philips’ website, these luminous panels are described as follows:

Luminous textile is a revolutionary new way to enhance interiors with light, texture and dynamic visual content. A totally unique ambient lighting system, it integrates multi-coloured LEDs seamlessly within beautiful white or coloured textile panels. The result is a “mood wall” that can integrate lighting into a building’s architecture and emphasise the concept of any room. And because of the range of fabrics and the sheer flexibility of the content, its creative potential is phenomenal.

Can’t imagine it yet? Watch this video and be amazed.

These acoustic textile panels have superior sound absorption, reducing unwanted sounds and limiting sound propagation that causes disturbances from unnecessary noise.

Can you imagine a house of the future where you did not need to paint your walls anymore because the panels can just change color depending on your mood? I sure can!

Flexibility

Organic LEDs (OLEDs) are used by Philips to create an interactive display of lights.

Its Living Shapes mirror, for example, contains OLEDs that sense when someone moves closer to it. When it detects the outline of the person, it shuts off the OLEDs that are in the person’s field of vision. It then becomes a mirror with warm lights all around the person’s reflection.

Philips also demonstrated its Living Sculpture concept which will be perfect in homes, offices, buildings, clubs, restaurants and just about anywhere where it serves as ever moving brightly lit chandeliers. The design, arrangement, setup and operation of Living Sculpture is totally up to the consumer who can control light in so many different ways. To create the unevenness of each light diode, rods of different lengths are attached to the baseplates with a Lumiblade OLED on top.

With lights moving, changing colors, and transforming shapes, Philips has made lighting not just functional but interactive, mood-changing and fashionable. Designers can arrange three-dimensional arrays of OLEDs in open spaces like ceilings and walls, add movement to any surface, or make panels throb rhythmically or illuminate interactive displays.