More Smart Glasses

Additional experiments with the idea.  Will this become common, replacing phones and watches?

TCL unveils Thunderbird Smart Glasses with a full-color transparent micro-LED display

PETER, 15 OCTOBER 2021

There is a renewed push to make smart glasses the next big thing and these may be the most impressive yet – TCL unveiled the Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition. They use a micro-LED display with a wave guide that was developed in-house over the last three years. It’s a transparent color display, so these look and feel like regular glasses. 

This sets them apart from Xiaomi’s concept smart glasses, which only featured a monochrome display also using micro-LED. In both cases the LEDs are tiny, just 4 µm in size, but TCL’s team developed a proprietary algorithm that enables the Thunderbird glasses to show a full-color image.

Check out the video below for a demonstration of what one can do with smart glasses. Basically, the aim is to replace your smartphone or at least its display to start. You can read the news, view messages, check your schedule, control your smart home and so on, all with the added advantage that the glasses are a display that’s always in front of you.  ...' 

LED Display of incoming Data Through Clothing

All the Information You Need Could Be in Your Pocket

University of Waterloo Cheriton School of Computer Science (Canada)

October 12, 2021

Researchers at the University of Waterloo's Cheriton School of Computer Science in Canada have developed a tool to display basic information from incoming messages to smartphones and other wireless devices by shining it through one’s apparel. The PocketView technology uses light-emitting diode (LED) displays that can serve either as standalone devices or be linked wirelessly to smartphones through Bluetooth. Cheriton's Antony Albert Raj Irudayaraj said the displays show only minimal information, which is "good enough if you're walking or biking, for example, to show basic navigation instruction." Experiments found thin and light-colored fabrics transmit LED light better, while many darker-colored fabrics and denser, patterned weaves are sufficiently transparent to see the lit LEDs underneath, especially indoors.

Full article

Powering Smart Devices Indoors

We experimented with IOT powered by Solar indoors in retail settings.

 Common Solar Tech Can Power Smart Devices Indoors, NIST Study Finds    By NIST  August 20, 2021

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) studying the indoor charging capability of small modular photovoltaic (PV) devices determined that a mini modular PV device made of silicon, absorbing only light from an LED, supplied more power to a wireless temperature sensor than the sensor consumed in operation.

They said this indicates it is possible to power Internet of Things devices with PV modules.

The researchers found the silicon module converted 9.3% of the LED light into electrical power, compared to power conversion efficiency rates of 23.1% for gallium indium phosphide (GaInP) and 14.1% for gallium arsenide (GaAs) modules.

NIST's Andrew Shore said, "Even with a less-efficient mini module, we found that we could still supply more power than the wireless sensor consumed."   ... .' 

Acquiring 3D Images from LED Room Lighting

 Researchers Acquire 3D Images with LED Room Lighting, Smartphone

Optical Society of America, January 11, 2021

Researchers at the U.K.'s University of Strathclyde used a smartphone and LEDs to perform three-dimensional (3D) optical imaging, without the need for complicated manual processes to sync up the camera and lighting. Strathclyde's Emma Le Francois said, "We wanted to make photometric stereo imaging more easily deployable by removing the link between the light sources and the camera." The Strathclyde team developed algorithms that uniquely modulate each LED, which allow the camera to ascertain which LED produced which image, to enable accurate 3D image reconstruction. The technique also features its own clock signal, so image acquisition can be self-synchronized with the LEDs by using the camera to passively detect the LED clock signal. The researchers used this method to image a 48-millimeter-tall figurine that was 3D-printed with a matte material, realizing an error of just 2.6 millimeters when the object was recorded from a distance of 42 centimeters.

Electronic Skin Generates its Own Power

 A useful play. 

Solar-based Electronic Skin Generates Its Own Power 

IEEE Spectrum Payal Dhar December 13, 2020 

 Researchers from the U.K.'s University of Glasgow have created an energy-generating electronic skin (eSkin) from miniaturized solar cells that can deliver tactile perceptions for touch and proximity sensing without the use of dedicated touch sensors. The eSkin's solar cells produce energy in response to light; in proximity mode, light intensity indicates an object's distance from a cell, with infrared LEDs incorporated to improve proximity sensing. Proof-of-concept tests with an eSkin-wrapped three-dimensionally-printed robotic hand found an energy surplus of 383.3 milliwatts generated from the palm of the robotic arm. Glasgow's Ra    ... 

Sustainability of LEDs

This came up in a project done during the earlier days of LED adoption.  Good piece here that makes  the case.  Another landfill scenario?

LED Technology Isn't All That Sustainable
Declan Barrett, SCB Contributor in SupplychainBrain

It’s now accepted among the business community that light-emitting diode (LED) technology is here to stay. It generates significant energy and cost savings, and represents a quick way for companies to positively impact their energy consumption and move toward a more sustainable future.

On the face of it, forming a business case for LED technology can seem very straightforward, as companies are usually replacing conventional, high-wattage lighting — requiring bulbs to be replaced regularly — with low-wattage, maintenance-free LED fittings.

Return-on-investment calculations for LED technology are frequently referred to among industry players as “no-brainers,” because companies generally recover the capital cost of making the transition in less than three years.

However, there are three big catches. Companies have to remember that this isn’t a one-shot deal, and finance departments are currently finding this out the hard way.

Maintenance

The first catch is maintenance, or lack thereof. It’s true that LED fixtures are maintenance-free, but that’s because they have no serviceable parts. They have a finite lifespan, composed as they are of pieces of electronic equipment much like a flatscreen TV.   .... "

Space Captures 3D LED Models of Contents

A new kind of film capture or  cinema?

LED egg Room-Sized LED Egg Captures Amazing 3D Models of People Inside It
in TechCrunch
By Devin Coldewey

Google researchers have designed a prismatic light-emitting-diode (LED) "egg," to generate remarkable three-dimensional (3D) and relightable models of people within it. The egg uses volumetric capture, in which multiple cameras in a 360-degree arrangement render a photorealistic representation of a subject in motion, while also allowing the model to be realistically illuminated by virtual light sources. This enables the model's placement in any virtual environment where lighting can change. The egg contains 331 LED lights that can produce any hue, and that shift in a specific pattern during subject capture, creating a lighting-agnostic model. When placed in the virtual setting, the models reflect the setting's lighting, and not the lighting of the egg itself.  ... "

Let there be Better LED Light

The Math That Promises to Make the World Brighter     Kevin Hartnett,  Senior Writer in Quanta.

The color of LED lights is controlled by a clumsy process. A new mathematical discovery may make it easier for us to get the hues we want.

n elaborate quantum dance powers LED lightbulbs. The more precisely the dance can be choreographed, the closer LEDs will come to fulfilling their promise as the ubiquitous energy-efficient lighting source of the future (LEDs are already efficient, but they could be a lot more so). My latest story, “Mathematicians Tame Rogue Waves, Lighting Up Future of LEDs,” is about a mathematical discovery that allows physicists to plan out that quantum dance step by step, like directors of a Broadway show.

LEDs work when electrons can be coaxed to collide with “holes,” particle-like entities with a positive charge found in semiconducting material. When an electron hits a hole, the LED emits a photon of light.

At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. In practice, it can be hard to push electrons around with such precision. The semiconducting material used to make most LEDs has a highly messy atomic structure. This means that electrons will sometimes “localize” (or get stuck) before finding a hole. If electrons localize in the wrong place, they emit a phonon of heat instead of a photon of light, and we end up using LED lightbulbs to heat our living rooms. .... "