As virtual Display Week goes on, Taiwan-based panel maker AUO announced its demonstration of advanced display technologies covering Micro LED automotive displays, Mini LED medical displays, a full range of gaming displays as well as display applications in smart retail and transportation. Pioneering the next generation display technology, AUO is showcasing a complete series of full color TFT driven Micro LED automotive displays. The 9.4-inch flexible Micro LED display developed jointly by AUO and PlayNitride is now integrated into a automotive display t...

Sensing technologies have been wide adopted for applications that aim to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Several solutions used LiDAR sensors to keep social distance between people or to control people flow based on object detecting. Spectral sensing, on the other hand, can be applied for medical testing for COVID-19 virus. Austrian sensor expert AMS recently announced its collaboration with two German medical companies for such applications. AMS said that it is providing its AS7341L spectral sensor to midge medical, a German medical technology startup from B...

SmartKem is a UK-based organic semiconductor materials producer and it has announced its development of Mini LED backlight prototypes for full array local dimming aimed at TV, monitors and signage applications. The company is showcasing its development at Display Week 2020, which is virtually taking place this week. Organic materials for organic thin-film transistors using SmartKem materials can be used to manufacture active matrix backplanes, driving arrays of thousands of individual Mini LEDs on a substrate, thereby delivering impressive high resolution images with...

Some novel applications of large size outdoor LED displays are happening now. Outdoor LED displays are not merely seen as digital billboards on the buildings or by the highway. Actually, it is very popular to use LED displays as backdrops for commercial events such as movie premiere, live concerts, and more. However, during the coronavirus pandemic, drive-in cinemas become a premier entertainment selection that can remain social distancing. Recently, more and more drive-in cinemas reopen across the world. There are LED display and projection solutions for drive-in cinema...

Lucid Motors announced its DreamDrive, an ADAS system combining sensing solutions including LiDARS which will be equipped with Lucid Air revealing on September 9, 2020. Lucid Air that will be delivered in early 2021 is expected to be the first to market with the combination of a driver monitoring system and a sensor suite that includes high-resolution LIDAR as standard equipment. The DreamDrive technology suite supports 19 key safety, driving, and parking assist features that will be available on Lucid Air upon start of production, with another eight features e...

Germicidal LEDs have been wide deployed home appliances such as washing machine and air conditioners for disinfecting function, aiming to prevent the spread of disease especially at the time when COVID-19 still pose threats to the world. To address the disinfecting demands across the globe, Hyosung America, an ATM supplier, announced a disinfection kits for its products to help fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and to help ease consumers’ safety concerns with using ATMs. (Image: Hyosung America) Starting this fall, the company will equip the disinfect...

Lighting Research Center (LRC) conducted a survey to investigate the viewpoint of people towards UV disinfection products. (Image: Pixabay) Demands for UV disinfection products hiked due to the present pandemic crisis. With increasing options for products and applications, many consumers and product specifiers have questions about the safety, effectiveness, and energy efficiency of these products. In order to address these concerns, the LRC is currently examining a range of UV disinfection technologies. The goal of this work is to provide information that will h...

LeddarTech announced that its LiDAR product Leddar Pixell is now adopted by COAST Autonomous in an autonomous delivery vehicle (ADV) at the Kinney County Railport (KCRP) near Brackettville, Texas. KCRP is one of several railyards operated by Harbor Rail Services Company of California. COAST Autonomous selected LeddarTech’s Leddar Pixell Cocoon LiDAR with its 360-degree vehicle coverage as a supplier for this project. The COAST Autonomous electric ADVs operate CO2 emission-free and enable Harbor Rail to operate and mov...

The Franco-German satellite MERLIN is due to be launched into space in 2025 to measure the methane concentration in the Earth's atmosphere - a milestone in climate research. Important components of the LiDAR measurement system come from the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut in Berlin, which has now delivered the required laser diode benches to the project partner. The MERLIN mission aims to better understand the effect of the greenhouse gas methane on global warming. A radar-like laser system on the satellite measures natural and anthropogenic methane emissions: The...

In the first half of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted the world as well as the technology industry with various interruptions occurred in the supply chain. In April, LEDinside covered how Micro LED technology could still have a chance to grow despite the COVID-19 impacts on the industry. And now, we would like to share the breakthroughs of Micro LED unveiled during the first half of the year proving that developments of the technology have not stopped by the pandemic. Micro LED Wafer and Chip Improvements Researchers have been working on...

LG Electronics has added the category of Micro LED to its Business Solution website with its Micro LED display product available for inquiry. The Micro LED TV, named LSAB009 by the company, is a 163-inch 4K screen with a pixel pitch of 0.9mm based on COB technology. (Image: LG) The Micro LED TV of LG delivers a peak brightness of 1,200 nits and typical brightness of 600 nits. The peak contrast ratio achieves 100,000:1 and the max ratio 50,000:1. LG has yet announced the release date of the product but some source said it would start shipping i...

Velodyne Lidar announced a three year sales agreement with PARIFEX, a traffic management and speed measurement systems provider. Based on the agreement, PARIFEX will use Velodyne’s LiDAR sensors in its traffic monitoring solutions which can help reduce road accident rates and enhance roadway safety. (Image: Velodyne Lidar/PARIFEX) PARIFEX equips its NANO-CAM and NOMAD solutions with Velodyne Puck sensors for real-time tracking of static and moving objects including vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists, while preserving anonymit...

STMicroelectronics announced that its FlightSense Time-of-Flight (ToF) technology has been adopted by Aura Aware, a Dutch startup company to develop a social distance maintaining device for preventing disease transmission. Time-of-Flight sensors transmit photons and then calculate distance to the target based on the time it takes for the reflected photons to be received back by the sensor. Moreover, ranging accuracy is unaffected by surface characteristics of the target, such as clothing color or skin reflectivity, of the target, making FlightSense ideal for helping peopl...

Apart from helping to improve eyesight, LED light is now used to restore hearing, according to a new study conducted by University of Göttingen, Germany. The scientists created an optical cochlear implant based on LED lights that can safely and partially restore the sensation of hearing in deaf rats and gerbils. Their design's light-based approach allowed it to deliver more accurate and pinpointed signals to auditory nerves compared with current implants based on electricity, which often suffer from poor sound quality. The technology also offers some improvements ove...

Many leading LED companies across the world including Cree, Nichia and Osram see horticulture LED lighting a growing market with expanding applications. Apart from the well-known application of vertical farming supplementary lighting for greenhouses is also a major growing segment for horticulture LED lighting. A recent study published agriculture journal Agronomy demonstrated that LED lighting can improve yield and precocity of greenhouse tomatoes in the Mediterranean, where sunlight is considered sufficient comparing to other region. Researchers of the University o...

LED applications covering lighting and disinfection have become crucial technologies to support people’s safety when COVID-19 is still posing a threat globally. During the pandemic, technology builders continue to enhance applications and create new possibility to leverage the functions of LEDs aiming to provide safer environments for people. Enlighted, a IoT platform provider, added workplace digital contact tracing application to its IoT platform to help employees return safely to manufacturing facilities, pharmaceutical labs, offices and more. The application pr...

A research team led by Shin-Tson Wu, Professor from the College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, USA, conducted a comprehensive analysis on the current display technologies: LCD, OLED, Mini LED and Micro LED. The researchers analyze the performance of self-emitting Mini LED, Micro LED and OLED display, as well as Mini LED backlit LCD, evaluating the power consumption and ambient contrast ratio of each display in depth and systematically compared the dynamic range, motion picture response time, color gamut, and adaptabili...

As COVID-19 sweeping across the world, most large scale activities have been cancelled, rescheduled or moved online. So are the fashion events. Milano Fashion Week is now hosted entirely online from July 14 to 17 and people in the city can see the shows on the large LED signage provided by Samsung hanging on Duomo Cathedral. (Image: Samsung) By moving the showcase online, the organizer of the event, the National Chamber of Italian Fashion and Urban Vision, streaming partner of the Milano Digital Fashion Week, hopes to offer fans of fashion and design a sen...

We have now learned that COVID-19 is transmitted through droplets or surfaces contact of the infected individuals. As a result, wearing mask and intensifying disinfection are considered effective ways to prevent infection. Combining above two solutions, a UVC LED embedded mask was developed and raised more than US$ 1 million on a crowdfunding platform. (Image: UM System) The product, named UVMask, was launched by UM System, a subsidiary of Measure Inc. focusing on optical and bio-technology, on June 25, 2020. According to UM System, UVMask is a reus...

Since many places have ended lockdowns and return to usual life but the threat of COVID-19 continues, it is important to maintain social distance and intensify disinfection in public areas. UV light disinfection, which has been a popular application ever since the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak, is now supported by scientists as an effective solution to prevent COVID-19 transmission for indoor environment. A study recently published in ACS Nano by experts in the fields of virology, immunology, aerosols, architecture, and physics, have surveyed the possible methods t...

LiDAR sensor developer Quanergy Systems shared that its new generation QORTEX People Counter solution can deliver over 98% accuracy from pitch dark or indoor to very bright lighting conditions in full sun light. By combining the system with Quanergy’s LiDAR product, a wide range of flow management can be deployed to enhance security and safety in public areas especially at the critical time of reopen. According Quanergy, QORTEX People Counter provides information about the flow and number of people in retail stores, public transportation centers, stadiu...

A new study reveals how outdoor artificial lighting at night links with sleep and mental disorder of adolescents. Researchers of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found that teenagers who live in areas that have high levels of artificial light at night tend to get less sleep and are more likely to have a mood disorder comparing to teens who live in areas with low levels of night-time light. The research, titled “Association of Outdoor Artificial Light at Night with Mental Disorders and Sleep Patterns among US Adolescents,” was based on a cro...

GE Current and Pointr announced their partnership to leverage the edge of smart lighting based on IoT technology for safe reopens of large buildings. Especially at the time when COVID-19 still post threat to the communities. The smart lighting technology of GE Current combined with Pointr’s location-based services developed enhanced space management applications for retailers, warehouses and industrial premises. Through mobile devices, owners of buildings and public areas can understand the precise location of employees and visitors. (Image: GE Current) G...

Self-driving technology startup Aurora announced its self-developed LiDAR sensor FirstLight LiDAR last week. The LiDAR sensor was tested on Aurora’s test vehicles to help the perception system to see and track objects farther, faster, and with greater precision. (Image: Aurora) Aurora acquired LiDAR company Blackmore last year eyeing the expertise of FMCW (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) technology. FMCW LiDAR delivers a constant stream of light and changes the frequency of that light at regular intervals. With the technology, Auro...

Vuzix, who focusing on smart glasses and AR technology, announced the recent granting of a series of patents and patents pending, focused on wearable computer and AR smart glasses. The company said that its patent portfolio has grown from 90 patents and patents pending to 166 over the last 36 months. Vuzix’ patent portfolio encompasses a range of IP including waveguides with holographic optics, laser and Micro LED display integration, fashion forward industrial designs and optics that support low cost single layer waveguides to multilayer large field of view solutions. ...

People usually only know that UV light is viable to kill bacteria and viruses, but they are not aware of the details about wavelength or ililluminance. For the manufacturers who had planned to end production of conventional lighting, this UVC trend for lamps become a big surprise. Take Signify for example, it is magnifying product categories and lines and invested UV lamp producer, GLA, in Netherland, indicating that the heat of UVC conventional lamp will not fade away in short. As a connector supplier, Amphenol LTW Technology has been collaborating with manufactur...

The COVID-19 pandemic has created severe impacts on the global economics. People around the world are getting used to a new lifestyle in response to the crisis as well. In order to prevent infection, UV technology applications are returning to the center of the industry. UVC, with the wavelengths between 200 – 280 nanometers (nm) and can deactivate bacteria and viruses, is gaining unprecedented attention in particular. In the past few months, the effects of UVC light on coronaviruses have been discussed and reported. LED manufactures also hurriedly devoted to UV...

A research team from South Korea developed a new method to power medical implants using active photonic wireless system incorporating Micro LED that can be attached on skin and a photovoltaic device that integrated with medical implant. Medical implants such as pacemakers help to monitor and regulate physical condition of people to support efficient medical treatment. These devices usually need a constant source of energy to operate, resulting in issues of power supply. Batteries and wired power also create limitation for applications. For example, when battery power gets exhau...

US-based LED video display supplier Daktronics announced that it has provided 80 LED display units to a Jordan media service company Seagulls for their city-wide project in Amman, the capital city of Jordan. Of the 80 LED displays provided for this project, 50 featured 2 square meters and 30 featured 8 square meters of digital space. All 80 units employed 3.9 mm line spacing for up-close viewing distances. These units are installed across the city of Amman to share digital advertising messages to passersby. The installation took place between 2019 and 2020. (Imag...

Fluence by Osram, the horticulture LED lighting solution provider, announced the expansion of its global photobiology research program, which encompasses studies on multiple vine crops, leafy greens and medical cannabis in the United States, Canada, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Fluence leverages a network of leading research institutions and partners for its program, including Wageningen University & Research (WUR) for tomatoes; Proefstation voor de Groenteteelt (Proefstation) to study cucumbers; Harrow Research and Development Centre for peppers; Th...