Recently the main news in lighting has been all about luminous ceilings, lighting at events or street lighting. Big, is what we’re saying. Big lights that can’t easily be moved around, or usually at all.
One of the great things about LED, however, is the fact that it allows for so many portable lighting ideas. You can carry around a light on your phone, as a touch-sensitive cushion to help you find things like keys, or even roll it up as part of a professional lighting kit.
That last idea, which has become a real product called the RagLite , could potentially change a number of photographic industries. Its portable nature, incorporating rows of specially-configured LED strip lights into a foldable fabric, makes it immediately more portable than traditional tungsten alternatives.
So photographers and artists of all levels, from amateur film-makers to professional fashion photographers, can carry around a lighter kit and set up a shoot much more quickly, in a wider variety of locations.
The kit provides an additional tailored solution for film-makers. Because of the way in which light fractures through a film camera lens, film-makers are in need of highly specific solutions – which tend to come at the cost of portability.
However, armed with a RagLite, film-makers no longer need to worry about how to get the right lights to the right location – they can simply unroll it and start shooting.
Another light that fits in your bag is the Kangaroo Light. In fact, it’s designed to help you find your keys in your bag.
(Copyright © Studio Banana Things)
This device, integrating LEDs and touch sensors into a flexible, cushion-like form, is designed to provide a portable lighting solution for everyday use, turning on with a squeeze or touch.
A neat side-effect of this design is a solution to the age-old problem: “Where are my keys? I know they’re in my bag somewhere…” Because the Kangaroo Light is designed to sit in the bottom of your bag, all you need to do is touch the light and it will illuminate the bag, making the search for your keys a thing of the past.
But what if you want your lights to be even more portable? What if you could use lights to provide a ‘second screen’ for your smartphone?
The Lunecase, a silicon phone case that integrates LEDs, does just that. By utilizing the electromagnetic radiation emitted from your phone, the case can display incoming text messages or phone calls on the back of your phone – even before they appear on your phone’s main screen.
Responsive, interactive portable lights could be used for all sorts of things, from motion sensitive lamps to a kitchen panel displaying your phone calls before the phone rings… but for now, knowing we can get these lights on our phone already feels like the future is here.
What kind of portable lights would you love to see? And what would you use them for?
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