Originally published September 14 2005
Researchers look into advantages of the light-emitting diode
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, are creating "smart lights" or LED (light-emitting diodes) that not only improve the way we light our homes, but could also improve health and electronic communication.
"We are looking at lighting systems that provide more than lighting," he says.
Most people know them as being quite small, like the lights that form numbers on digital clocks or blink on answering machines.
But recent technological advances have made them much more powerful, able to illuminate swimming pools and serve as traffic signals, for example.
LEDs offer energy savings when compared to standard lighting, but Schubert is more excited about some other properties.
And that, Schubert says, opens the door to using lights for electronic communication as well as illumination.
* brake lights that tell a closely following car to stop, even if the driver doesn't notice.
* room lights that transmit messages to devices worn by only certain people, like particular doctors or nurses in a hospital, rather than speakers that spew announcements for everybody to hear.
"I think we're looking at maybe a time frame of the next five to 20 years," he said.
Meanwhile, his Rensselaer colleague Mariana Figueiro believes that lighting in offices and schools could be improved to help people stay healthy and productive, by acting on their internal body clocks.
"Light isn't just for vision any more," says Figueiro, program director at Rensselaer's Lighting Research Center and head of a committee on light and human health for the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.
The 24-hour internal body clock is best known for governing cycles of alertness and sleep, and for producing jet lag when people travel across time zones.
"We're pretty much blue-sky detectors" whose clocks count on bright days and dark nights, said Figueiro.
To counter that, architects and lighting engineers might someday take body clocks into account when they design lighting schemes, she said.
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