Recently, Panasonic has lit up around 100,000 ‘wishing star’ LED lights on Tokyo's Sumida River to embrace the ‘Symphony of Light’ event.
The two-day event was held on the bank of the river, which runs through central Tokyo. The company, which announced record losses of £3.4bn, created the art installation alongside the lights of the Tokyo Sky Tree as part of the Tokyo Hotaru (Firefly) Festival.
For the event, Panasonic created a special kind of orb called an "Inoriboshi" (prayer star) that incorporates one of the company’s HIT photovoltaic cells, a rechargeable battery, and an LED chip, enabling the lights to store energy, reducing the impact of the event on the environment.
A sensor on the orb’s bottom causes it to light up when it's placed in the water. Also, just to assuage any environmental concerns, all the orbs were collected with a net downriver so that they can be re-used.
And the lights were all collected to be reused again following the completion of the event, the lights were all collected to be reused again.