Tokyoflash has designed an LED watch. When you first glance at it, you will probably see a bunch of green waves, but if you look at it closely, you can see past the optical illusion and see the actual time displayed.

According to the Nikkei newspaper, Mitsubishi Chemical will invest 15 billion yen ($175 million) by March 2016 to add equipment to produce materials for light-emitting diode, or LED, lighting. It' said that Mitsubishi Chemical will install a production line at its factory in Ibaragi prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, by fiscal 2012 to start mass production of gallium, nitride substrates for LED.

Recently,Nichia Corporation has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Wilmar Corporation for infringing two Nichia patents directed to white LEDs (U.S. Patents Nos. 5,998,925 and 7,531,960) and two Nichia patents directed to LED chips (U.S. Patents Nos. 5,652,434 and 6,093,965) in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Japan Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) has raised its blue LED production capacity from 200 million units per month to 340 million units per month at its Chiba site. SDK made a trial run to secure product quality and stable operations after completion of expansion work in July, and has already started commercial operation.

Panasonic has unveiled a new Viera Pure Line comes with shiny purple, satin silver and silky white, which appears different colors depending of the lighting in the room. They are available in four screen sizes (37", 32", 22" and 19"),the 2 smaller sizes come with a built-in iPod dock, while the 2 larger come with Panasonic's own Viera Cast service (complete with Skype).

Toshiba launched new Cinema Series for 2010 includes the WX800 line of 3D LED HDTVs. The WX800 3D series is compatible with Blu-ray 3D specifications, and requires 3D glasses manufactured by Toshiba. They are available in 55-inch and 46-inch sizes and Toshiba boasts the line as their "most meticulously designed and engineered [HDTV] to date."

Japanese Mitsubishi Electric Corporation will introduce world's first, large-scale display OLED system "Diamond Vision OLED".   This screen jointly developed between Mitsubishi Electric and Tohoku Pioneer Corporation, used Mitsubishi Electric's newly developed video controlling technology, and designed for indoor use.

Accoring to Japanese electronics manufacturer Panasonic , instead of LED sets, edge-lit LED TVs will become the standard for LCD sets. Panasonic's technical marketing manager Markus Wagenseil,pointed out that compared to slimmer and cheaper sets using edge-mounted LEDs, direct LED technology will prove to be too expensive to be sustainable. In additon, direct LED sets require many more LEDs to be mounted than the alternative option, which will prove a disadvantage due to a market shortage of electronic components.

It's reported that the world's first all-plastic LED lamp for outdoor illumination is jointly developed by two Japanese companies, Iwasaki Electric Co., Ltd. and Teijin Limited. Iwasaki Electric will release this new lamp by the end of 2010, expecting initial annual sales of 30,000 lamps. Instead of aluminum, the lamp uses a high-thermal-conductivity resin for the housing. And the resin is made by combining Teijin's Raheama（tm） high-thermal-conductivity carbon material with polycarbonate resin.

Japanese LED maker Nichia Corporation has filed four provisional injunction actions in Tokyo District Court to enjoin Tsannkuen Japan (Sankun Nihon Denki Kabushiki Kaisha) from infringing Nichia's patent. Nichia believed G.K. Seiyu and K.K. Yamada Denki, had infringed Nichia's white LED patents (No. 3724498, No. 3995011, No. 4109297, No. 4530094).

Sharp has shown off Aquos LE925 Quattron LED TV at IFA 2010,which consists of two panel sizes - 60- and 46-inch models.   The claimed 1.8x better brightness than normal three primary colour set is said to reduce crosstalk 3D image separation even further.

Toshiba has launched its first 3D enabled Regza WL768 series LED TVs. With the WL768 screens, you can view 3D content straight out of an optional transmitter and even throwing in a pair of active shutter glasses. With integrated Freeview HD tuner, Toshiba are certainly not relying on the 3D aspect of the new screens to generate sales. The service currently offers BBC1, ITV and Channel 4 in HD.

Toshiba has revealed a new pocket projector - Lumileo P100, which is intended primarily for small spaces.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has completed installation of a 1,513-inch Diamond Vision large-scale display system, which instead of the previous CRT screens installed in 1996, and becomes the second largest display at a Japanese boat racecourse and the largest in the Kyushu area. It displays high-definition video content, incorporates high-luminance LEDs aligned vertically and horizontally in a 15-millimeter dot pitch and the latest digital screen controllers.

Japan's Quantum Lighting Products Limited will team up with Future Lighting Solutions, a division of Future Electronics to develop an LED retrofit for E26-base incandescent light bulbs.

PT Panasonic Gobel Indonesia (PGI), cooperation by Japanese electronics manufacturer Panasonic Corporation and the Gobel corporate family, has discussed how to develop its industry in Indonesia. Panasonic had made Indonesia its global production base for several products, including batteries and LED lamps. New lithium coin battery factory in Indonesia is expected to start operation in November.

Sharp Corporation is following up its LED lamps with another mainstay of residential lighting by introducing six models of industry-first LED ceiling lights into the Japanese market. Using Sharp’s proprietary light diffusion technology, these ceiling lights achieve a thin design that is 43 mm at the thickest part and just 8 mm at the thinnest.

Recently, panel manufacturers have been concerned about the excess inventory, triggering uncertainty toward demand for LED TV backlight. LEDinside’s survey showed that Korean panel vendors have started to save LED inventory since the end of 2009. Therefore, when facing the slack season, they hit the brake for LED procurement in advance. Taiwan-based panel manufacturers have formally adopted large quantities of LED backlight products; AUO is the fastest of all at this stage, creating short supply for its LED plant Lextar.  

This year’s Welker Award was conferred at the 37th International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors – ISCS – in Takamatsu, Japan. The prize inaugurated in 1976 and sponsored by OSRAM is awarded for exceptional research conducted in the field of compound semiconductors. This year, the award goes to Pallab K. Bhattacharya, professor at the University of Michigan, for his pioneering work on photonic devices, which are based on III-V compound semiconductors.

Sharp Electronics of Japan has announced the Quadtron line of TV sets, the models range in size from 40-inches to 60-inches (40, 46, 52 and 60) and of the new models, four of them are 3D ready.

It’s reported that Sujana Energy Limited, a subsidiary of the city-based Sujana Group, entered into a strategic partnership with Nichia Corporation of Japan. The two companies will collaborate to produce LED Lighting and Display Products, according to the agreement.

Sony now shows off its new flexible OLED display that is 4.1-inches and just 80 μm thick. The screen is able to display the image even when fully rolled up and can be rolled around a pen or pencil in the office. Sony said the screen can provide 432×240 pixel resolution, but there are no plans to release it to market.

The Research Center for Silicon Nano-Science (SNS) of the Advanced Research Laboratories (ARL) at Tokyo City University developed a silicon-based LED. It is made by embedding Ge microparticles (quantum dots) with a diameter of several tens of nanometers to 100nm in the i-layer of a Si-based device with a pin structure. The university claims that the light emitting device will help realize a silicon (Si) photonics because it can be produced by using a manufacturing process compatible with a CMOS process and possibly is capable of laser oscillation.

Ringdale of Austin, Texas USA, has signed an exclusive licensing, manufacturing and distribution agreement for the region of Japan with Sojitz Systems Corp. Under the terms of the agreement, Sojitz manufactured lighting fixtures for streets, parking structures, billboards, building exteriors, warehouses, offices, retail spaces, parks and restaurants will be based on Ringdale's ActiveLED technology.

In November of 2009, Nichia Corporation filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas alleging that certain white LED-application products marketed Jiawei and its international corporate subsidiaries contain patent infringing white LEDs.

Lighting Japan 2010 was successfully concluded on April 16th, 2010. As its invited guest, LEDinside had the opportunity to visit Takeshi Tanaka, the executive director of Reed Exhibitions Ltd which hosted Lighting Japan, to learn more about the uniqueness of the exhibition.  Lighting Japan 2010

At Lighting Japan 2010, in addition to the LED lighting products which can replace various conventional indoor or outdoor light sources in terms of brightness specification, other special applications were also showcased, such as products designed to meet different needs using the wavelength characteristics of LED light sources for applications in plant nursery (agricultural industry), fishing industry, livestock breeding industry, and medical cosmetic industry.   Plant nursery

The new 'DoubleDome' series from Sharp incorporates three white light SMD LEDs with a colour rendering index (CRI) of 85. A silicone globe top applied directly on the phosphorous, with lens-like moulding, facilitates highly efficient light extraction. Sharp is supplementing its LED lighting portfolio with three new white 'high colour rendering', high-performance LEDs. The 'DoubleDome' LEDs from Sharp already provide suitable light for energy-efficient lighting without secondary optics.

Japan's Fujifilm Corp. plans to enter the market for LED lighting materials with a new kind of light diffusing film which is thinner and offers higher illumination intensity than products now available. The light diffusing film acts to spread out the light from the LED bulbs so they are not so bright. These diffusers are now typically made from acrylic resin materials which are milky in color and around 2mm thick. The thickness means they are hard to bend, and the milky color means that some of the light is wasted.

Athletics Stadium Screen Replaced to Provide Brighter and Higher Resolution Live Videos