lighting

Here's one of those bizarro products that's just waiting for some genius to come along and help it realize its no doubt substantial potential.

As you can see, it's a light in the guise of a hospital IV drip bag. That's odd enough (unless you're some sort of hypochondriac with a fetish for hospital gear). But it gets even more unusual. As you can also see, it's an LED light with a USB hookup for a plug. Of course, that means you plug it in to your laptop to fire it up.

Now, conceptually speaking, what could that possibly mean? That your laptop is ill and in need of an infusion of energy? OK, that's kind of cute. But it's odd that it actually seems to be the laptop that's energizing the drip bag, isn't it? So, hmmm, maybe this is a statement about things working the other way 'round? About technology and computers somehow being the ultimate drug?… Read more

Looking a little bit like the light cycles from Tron, but without the glowy bits, the E-Tracer 7009 placed in the top three of the Progressive Automotive X Prize competition in 2010.

Now the two-wheeled, two-seater has been renamed the MonoTracer MTE-150 and is headed to production, according to Auto Blog Green.

The MonoTracer MTE-150 has a Kevlar cabin and runs on a third-generation 150 kW (200 horsepower) drivetrain from AC Propulsion in California.

While the X Prize competitors were challenged to create a vehicle that could reach 100 mpge (miles per gallon equivalent), the MonoTracer could see about 350 … Read more

LED producer Bridgelux has teamed with Chevron in a project to highlight the benefits of LED streetlights in cities.

The two companies today announced a program that allows municipalities to upgrade their streetlights to more efficient, long-lasting LED lighting with little or no up-front cost.

The LEDs use about half as much energy as traditional street lighting and require lower maintenance, providing monthly savings that will allow municipalities to pay for the switch, the companies said.

So far, the cities of Dublin, Calif., and Livermore, Calif., where Bridgelux is based, have signed on to test the service.

"Through this … Read more

LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja has stepped down as the company's chief executive officer.

The decision, announced this morning, does not shed much light as to exactly why Ahuja resigned, but reports have already circulating suggesting it has to do something with the Federal Communication Commission's move to block the launch of its 4G network.

In November, Ahuja spoke at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco, arguing that there is a disparity between demand for data and the amount of available spectrum, and that the United States is not ready to handle those problems.

Nevertheless, Ahuja will continue … Read more

LightSquared, the wireless network company recently shot down by the FCC, is looking for a new CEO.

In light of the failure of the company to hold on to its waiver to operate a wireless network in satellite spectrum that is adjacent to GPS signals, the company's CEO, Sanjiv Ahuja, has resigned his post. According to a statement, he will continue to serve as chairman of the company's board.

Philip Falcone, CEO of Harbinger Capital, which contributed to LightSquared's $14 billion funding and who is now joining the company's board, said in the statement, "We … Read more

A relatively mundane data-link problem could explain last year's surprising finding that subatomic particles called neutrinos appeared to violate physics laws by traveling faster than the speed of light.

Problems with a fiber-optic link in the Opera experiment "could have led to an underestimate of the time of flight of the neutrinos," CERN, the European nuclear physics center that generated the neutrinos for the experiment, said in a statement today. The fiber fed GPS location data into the experiment's master clock.

Too short a travel time to the destination--Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics lab … Read more

The distributed sensor revolution is coming to office buildings, starting with overhead lights, according to startup Enlighted.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company today detailed the energy savings of some its first corporate customers who are using its computerized lighting controls. Enlighted said that customers, including Google, Turner Broadcasting, and Interface Global, have saved on average 60 percent on lighting energy. The return on investment, which depends on the price of electricity, is about two years, according to the company.

Rather than build a more efficient light source, Enlighted and a few other lighting startups are designing better controls. Automatically adjusting … Read more

Things are not looking good for LightSquared, the wireless startup that had planned to build a nationwide wireless broadband network.

Today, Reuters reported that the company said it plans to cut 45 percent of its workforce to conserve cash.

"This and other cost savings measures will allow LightSquared to continue to navigate the regulatory process as it works with the appropriate government agencies to find solutions to the GPS interference issue and bring its $14 billion privately funded wireless broadband network to more than 260 million Americans," according to the statement.

And yesterday, several news outlets reported that … Read more

Standing over a hot grill isn't a bad place to be, especially when faced with your own personal fans.

The powerful scent of barbecue wafting through the air is a surefire way to attract the attention of anybody and everybody within a reasonable distance. Adding a little breeze to a cookout has an additional effect aside from being able to easily meet the neighbors.

Directing smoke toward where it's desired, the Sharper Image BBQ Grill Light & Fan attaches to the grill, making life easier for the grill-master. Designed to not only cool down the cook but also … Read more