Light Emitting Diodes

Humans are light-sensitive beings. Whether it comes from the sun, a laser or a fluorescent bulb, light can affect our bodies and minds in ways that scientists are just beginning to understand. If you believe actor Robert Wagner, a little light can banish pain. Wagner is the television pitchman for Light Relief, a hand-held device equipped with 59 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that flicker with pulses of blue, red and infrared light. The device also has four heat settings.

Lisa Richter was making a left turn on a green light last spring when she was struck by a vehicle traveling the opposite direction, killing her instantly. Authorities say Richter, 34, might still be alive if not for an unintended consequence of green technology: The LED traffic signal facing the other driver was obscured by snow. "If the light had not been covered . . . the accident would have not occurred," said Det. Rob Sherwood of the Oswego, Ill., Police Department. Municipalities nationwide have switched to LED traffic signals because they burn brighter and save money by lasting longer and using 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs.

Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are almost as old as transistors. But technological advances in recent years have paved the way for a new generation of high-powered LED headlamps that will change auto styling and possibly improve safety. Lumileds Lighting, a Silicon Valley firm that has pioneered high-intensity LEDs, announced last month that it would provide LEDs for daytime-running lights in the new Audi A8.

The future of television could be sitting in an Irvine laboratory. To illuminate images, these sets use light-emitting diodes behind the screen, resulting in TVs that can be far thinner, brighter and more eco-friendly than other flat-panel models. LED-backlit TVs -- an evolution of the standard LCD set -- have been on the market since 2004. But the sets in this lab have something that could catapult the technology into the mainstream. A far lower price.

The energy crisis couldn't do it. It's taking something called indium gallium nitride to give Los Angeles-area motorists the green light for conservation. That's the tongue-twisting name of the material that is finally letting engineers retrofit traffic signals throughout Southern California with electricity-saving light-emitting diode lamps.

It's the green economy, stupid. It was hard not to think of this twist on his long-ago campaign slogan as former President Clinton toured the Los Angeles area on Monday, making the case that the quickest way out of the country's latest economic morass lies in the wonky topic of energy efficiency.

Sailors who visit the sick bay on a San Diego-based submarine are getting LED therapy -- a treatment that uses the healing power of light-emitting diodes, those little red lights found on many TVs and computers. The military wants to know whether the technology has the potential to speed healing of battlefield injuries. LED treatments reduced recovery time by about half in a preliminary study aboard the Salt Lake City, a nuclear submarine based at Naval Base Point Loma.

Researchers at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, have fabricated light-emitting transistors, or diodes, from organic polymers and predict that these diodes could be used to make inexpensive displays for electronic equipment, possibly including television screens. Light-emitting diodes made from conventional metallic semiconductors are expensive and too inefficient for most such uses.

We've heard it all before: Headsets with tiny display screens that will allow us freedom of movement while viewing high-resolution images. But most of the headsets we've seen in the marketplace are awkward to wear, provide disappointing images and eat batteries for breakfast. That's about to change, according to major players in the imaging field.

Breaking a stalemate that has delayed Los Angeles' compliance with state law, Mayor James K. Hahn directed the Department of Water and Power on Wednesday to provide $20 million in loans to convert the city's incandescent traffic signals into more energy-efficient lights.

Humans are light-sensitive beings. Whether it comes from the sun, a laser or a fluorescent bulb, light can affect our bodies and minds in ways that scientists are just beginning to understand. If you believe actor Robert Wagner, a little light can banish pain. Wagner is the television pitchman for Light Relief, a hand-held device equipped with 59 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that flicker with pulses of blue, red and infrared light. The device also has four heat settings.

It's the green economy, stupid. It was hard not to think of this twist on his long-ago campaign slogan as former President Clinton toured the Los Angeles area on Monday, making the case that the quickest way out of the country's latest economic morass lies in the wonky topic of energy efficiency.

A scientist at UC Santa Barbara on Thursday was given one of the world's top technology awards for his groundbreaking research on light-emitting diodes -- the ubiquitous LEDs that promise to replace Edison's incandescent bulb and light up vast areas of the Third World that are still without electricity. A UC Santa Barbara professor since 2000, Shuji Nakamura received word early Thursday that he had been selected for the Millennium Technology Prize, a grant of 1 million Euros -- roughly $1.

Breaking a stalemate that has delayed Los Angeles' compliance with state law, Mayor James K. Hahn directed the Department of Water and Power on Wednesday to provide $20 million in loans to convert the city's incandescent traffic signals into more energy-efficient lights.

The city of Los Angeles has fallen behind in meeting a two-year-old requirement by the state to replace old and burned-out traffic signals with energy-efficient lights amid a squabble over who should pay for the work, officials said Tuesday. The delay has forced officials to scramble to avoid having some signals go dark and to head off potential legal action by the state.

Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are almost as old as transistors. But technological advances in recent years have paved the way for a new generation of high-powered LED headlamps that will change auto styling and possibly improve safety. Lumileds Lighting, a Silicon Valley firm that has pioneered high-intensity LEDs, announced last month that it would provide LEDs for daytime-running lights in the new Audi A8.

They've always had the run of the streets, dictating who must stay and who can go. The authority of the traffic light is rarely questioned--but who knew it was quite so power-hungry? In fact, a standard traffic light run by an incandescent bulb gobbles up 10 times as much electricity as longer-lasting devices called light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, best known as those tiny red lights that alert people that their stereos are on.

A scientist at UC Santa Barbara on Thursday was given one of the world's top technology awards for his groundbreaking research on light-emitting diodes -- the ubiquitous LEDs that promise to replace Edison's incandescent bulb and light up vast areas of the Third World that are still without electricity. A UC Santa Barbara professor since 2000, Shuji Nakamura received word early Thursday that he had been selected for the Millennium Technology Prize, a grant of 1 million Euros -- roughly $1.

Sailors who visit the sick bay on a San Diego-based submarine are getting LED therapy -- a treatment that uses the healing power of light-emitting diodes, those little red lights found on many TVs and computers. The military wants to know whether the technology has the potential to speed healing of battlefield injuries. LED treatments reduced recovery time by about half in a preliminary study aboard the Salt Lake City, a nuclear submarine based at Naval Base Point Loma.

Two British companies announced plans early today to merge to become a world leader in the technology of so-called glowing plastics. Cambridge Display Technology announced the acquisition of the research activities of rival Opsys, giving it control of another major method to create organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). Financial details were not disclosed. The two closely held companies sell their know-how to major electronics manufacturers, such as Seiko Epson Corp., Philips, DuPont Co.