Lately, Sharp has announced four kinds of the "LED Dining Light" LED lighting apparatus, designed for dining rooms.

The new lamp has a design like a plate floating in the air. There are two type of the lamp, the rectangular "Round Square" type and the circular "Circle" type.

The Round Square type comes in two models: one is for four-seat tables, and the other is for six-seat tables. And the Circle type is available as a model on which leaves are seen when it is on in addition to a normal model.

As in the case of the LED backlight of LCD TVs, Sharp employed the "Edge Light" method, which places LEDs on the edges of an acrylic resin light guide plate. By dispersing minute diffusing particles inside the light guide plate, the company realized a plate that looks transparent when the light is off while improving light extraction efficiency.

Also, Sharp made improvements to the processing of the end faces of the plate to control the amount and angle of light, enabling to efficiently emit light backward.

Like Sharp's LED ceiling lamps, the color of the LED Dining Light can be changed in 10 levels from a cold color (white) to a warm color (incandescent color) in addition to two cherry blossom colors. The company proposes that the different colors are used for different situations at home.

The LED Dining Light will be released Sept 21, 2012, with an expected retail price of ¥35,000-45,000 (approx US$446-573).