LED wallpaper

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LED wallpaper

LED wallpaper is the integration of light-emitting diodes into flat substrates suitable to be applied to walls for interior decoration purposes.

Contents

The experimentation on the combination of light sources and wall covering surfaces has been largely fostered by the progressive miniaturisation of low-voltage lighting technology, such as LEDs and OLEDs, suitable to be incorporated into low-thickness materials to be applied onto interior walls. [1] The new possibilities offered by these developments have prompted some designers and companies to research and develop proprietary LED wallpaper technologies, some of which are currently available for commercial purchase. Other solutions mainly exist as prototypes or are in the process of being further refined.

The first use of the term LED wallpaper is found in the book Wallpaper by Lachlan Blackley, [2] describing the work of textile designer Maria Yaschuk, who designed a flexible solution to incorporate LEDs into digitally printed wall covering material in 2004. [3] This definition is currently used by companies such as Meystyle [4] and designer Ingo Maurer [5] in relation to LED wall covering materials included in their catalogues. [6] Other similar concepts are light-emitting wallpaper used by Lomox [7] and luminous textile used by Philips. [8]

Meystyle

Meystyle claim to have been the first company to integrate light-emitting diodes into wallpaper so that it can be hung like a traditional wall covering. Maria Yaschuk, co-founder of the company together with sister Ekaterina Yaschuk, presented the first prototype of LED wallpaper as part of her graduation project for the MA degree in Textile Futures at CSM in 2004. [3] The concept was successively developed with her sister Ekaterina into a series of designs exhibited in 2007 under the name Wire Geometrics at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland. [9] [10] The same year Maria and Ekaterina went on to commercialise their product under the company name Meystyle LED Wallpaper & Fabric. [11] Meystyle uses digital printing to transfer their designs on a variety of non-woven substrates suitable for wall covering. The LEDs are then incorporated by hand with a special technique that avoids adding any thickness to the material. Meystyle claim their LED wallpaper can be hung like any standard wall covering with the additional requirement of a power socket or a light switch. [11]

Living Wall by High-Low Tech

Living Wall is a project developed by MIT Media Lab research group High-Low Tech in 2009 as an experiment on interactive wallpaper that can be programmed to monitor its environment, control lighting and sound, and generally serve as an unobtrusive way to enrich environments. [12] The wallpaper is flat, made entirely from paper and paint and is paired with a computing kit whose pieces can be customized with all manner of sensors, LED lamps, network interfaces, and interactive embellishments. The designers claim the pieces can be controlled by running the hand across the surface of the wallpaper. [13] The Living Wall project was displayed at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts from June to September 2010 as part of the exhibition New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft. [14]

LOMOX

In early 2010 the Carbon Trust awarded a £454,000 grant to Welsh company LOMOX to develop a light emitting wallpaper using an ultra-efficient organic LED (OLED) technology that can be used as an even natural-looking light source for interior spaces in place of the more energy-demanding traditional lighting systems. [15] [16] The new technology was due for commercial release in 2012. [17]

Ingo Maurer and Team

Together with Meystyle's, Ingo Maurer's LED wallpaper is the only one currently available for commercial purchase. The LED wallpaper was designed by Ingo Maurer in partnership with Architects Paper in 2011 and is produced and distributed by Architects Paper. [18] Maurer's wallpaper presents itself as a large electronic circuit board printed on paper and can be affixed to the wall with normal wallpaper adhesive. The conducting paths printed on the matte non-woven substrate become part of the design, on top of which are distributed white, red and blue LEDs. The red and blue diodes form optical cuboids with the white lights loosely and irregularly spread around them. [19] The LEDs are controlled by a series of connection units which enables the individual regulation of the colours and the degrees of brightness of the LEDs. Silver-coloured skirting boards join the wallpaper to the floor and hide the technical equipment behind them. [18]

Philips

In 2011 Philips announced a partnership with Kvadrat Soft Cells to create a luminous textile which would combine Philips' experience in LED-based ambient lighting with Kvadrat Soft Cells' sound-absorbing textiles. [8] The aim of the project is to enhance interior space through light and texture making full use of the broad spectrum of colours in Philips’ LED range. The textile is held in place with a lightweight aluminum frame that keeps it taut with the right amount of surface tension. The LED lights can be customised in a wide palette of colours that allow the final user to change the mood of the room whenever desired. [20]

Alternative light-emitting wall covering solutions

There are some other examples of wall covering developments aimed at incorporating light-emitting technologies onto the surface of the walls that do not necessarily make use of light-emitting diodes.

In 2007 Dutch designer Jonas Samson created a wall covering system with integrated lighting. The product appears to be regular wallpaper when the light is off and when illuminated can display light in any pattern or design. The design enables a room to be lit entirely by the walls. [21] Turning the wallpaper on can be performed as a single action or can be set up in an elaborate sequence to make a space more dynamic and engaging. [22] The designer has used phosphorescent pigments, transparent layers and a light switch to create a patterned wall with a botanical print powered by external light sources. [23]

In 2008 Swedish designer Camilla Diedrich created a line of luminescent wallpaper that is lit by fiber optics. The line is called Nature Ray Charles Wallpaper and consists of an assortment of floral motifs in eight colour variations. The floral patterns are made with the fiber optic itself and produce a soft energy-efficient ambient light. [24]

In 2012 Brooklyn-based design company Flat Vernacular launched a line of wallpaper that can glow in the dark. Each glowing paper is printed using glow in the dark ink. The inks get charged by typical room lighting or sunlight and release a soft glow when the lights are turned off. [25]

In 2012, designer Debra Courtenay launched a project on the invention platform Quirky called Wallbrights. The concept combines the idea of LED wallpaper and customisable wall decal and consists of a series of individual hexagonal shapes containing an RGB LED light with an adhesive backing that can be easily attached to the wall. [26] The LED hexagonal decals can be composed into different patterns and shapes. Each component needs to be continuously connected to an adjacent one through their male/female connectors. The whole configuration can then be powered through a wall socket. The brightness and the colour of the lighting scheme can be adjusted through a mobile app that communicates with the units via Bluetooth. [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Light-emitting diode</span> Semiconductor and solid-state light source

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light is determined by the energy required for electrons to cross the band gap of the semiconductor. White light is obtained by using multiple semiconductors or a layer of light-emitting phosphor on the semiconductor device.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lighting</span> Deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects

Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight. Daylighting is sometimes used as the main source of light during daytime in buildings. This can save energy in place of using artificial lighting, which represents a major component of energy consumption in buildings. Proper lighting can enhance task performance, improve the appearance of an area, or have positive psychological effects on occupants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flashlight</span> Portable hand-held electric light

A flashlight (US) or torch (CE) is a portable hand-held electric lamp. Formerly, the light source typically was a miniature incandescent light bulb, but these have been displaced by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) since the early 2000s. A typical flashlight consists of the light source mounted in a reflector, a transparent cover to protect the light source and reflector, a battery, and a switch, all enclosed in a case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wallpaper</span> Material used to cover and decorate interior walls of buildings

Wallpaper is used in interior decoration to cover the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" to help cover uneven surfaces and minor wall defects, "textured", plain with a regular repeating pattern design, or with a single non-repeating large design carried over a set of sheets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neon lamp</span> Light source based on gas discharge

A neon lamp is a miniature gas-discharge lamp. The lamp typically consists of a small glass capsule that contains a mixture of neon and other gases at a low pressure and two electrodes. When sufficient voltage is applied and sufficient current is supplied between the electrodes, the lamp produces an orange glow discharge. The glowing portion in the lamp is a thin region near the cathode; the larger and much longer neon signs are also glow discharges, but they use the positive column which is not present in the ordinary neon lamp. Neon glow lamps were widely used as indicator lamps in the displays of electronic instruments and appliances. They are still sometimes used for their electrical simplicity in high-voltage circuits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neon sign</span> Electrified, luminous tube lights

In the signage industry, neon signs are electric signs lighted by long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in December 1910 by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show. While they are used worldwide, neon signs were popular in the United States from about the 1920s to 1950s. The installations in Times Square, many originally designed by Douglas Leigh, were famed, and there were nearly 2,000 small shops producing neon signs by 1940. In addition to signage, neon lighting is used frequently by artists and architects, and in plasma display panels and televisions. The signage industry has declined in the past several decades, and cities are now concerned with preserving and restoring their antique neon signs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blacklight</span> Light fixture that emits long-wave ultraviolet light and very little visible light

A blacklight, also called a UV-A light, Wood's lamp, or ultraviolet light, is a lamp that emits long-wave (UV-A) ultraviolet light and very little visible light. One type of lamp has a violet filter material, either on the bulb or in a separate glass filter in the lamp housing, which blocks most visible light and allows through UV, so the lamp has a dim violet glow when operating. Blacklight lamps which have this filter have a lighting industry designation that includes the letters "BLB". This stands for "blacklight blue". A second type of lamp produces ultraviolet but does not have the filter material, so it produces more visible light and has a blue color when operating. These tubes are made for use in "bug zapper" insect traps, and are identified by the industry designation "BL". This stands for "blacklight".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Holonyak</span> American engineer (1928–2022)

Nick Holonyak Jr. was an American engineer and educator. He is noted particularly for his 1962 invention and first demonstration of a semiconductor laser diode that emitted visible light. This device was the forerunner of the first generation of commercial light-emitting diodes (LEDs). He was then working at a General Electric Company research laboratory near Syracuse, New York. He left General Electric in 1963 and returned to his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he later became John Bardeen Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics.

Luminous efficacy is a measure of how well a light source produces visible light. It is the ratio of luminous flux to power, measured in lumens per watt in the International System of Units (SI). Depending on context, the power can be either the radiant flux of the source's output, or it can be the total power consumed by the source. Which sense of the term is intended must usually be inferred from the context, and is sometimes unclear. The former sense is sometimes called luminous efficacy of radiation, and the latter luminous efficacy of a light source or overall luminous efficacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architectural lighting design</span> Field within architecture, interior design and electrical engineering

Architectural lighting design is a field of work or study that is concerned with the design of lighting systems within the built environment, both interior and exterior. It can include manipulation and design of both daylight and electric light or both, to serve human needs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LED lamp</span> Electric light that produces light using LEDs

An LED lamp or LED light is an electric light that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps are significantly more energy-efficient than equivalent incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps. The most efficient commercially available LED lamps have efficiencies exceeding 200 lumens per watt (lm/W) and convert more than half the input power into light. Commercial LED lamps have a lifespan several times longer than both incandescent and fluorescent lamps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LED display</span> Display technology

A LED display is a flat panel display that uses an array of light-emitting diodes as pixels for a video display. Their brightness allows them to be used outdoors where they are visible in the sun for store signs and billboards. In recent years, they have also become commonly used in destination signs on public transport vehicles, as well as variable-message signs on highways. LED displays are capable of providing general illumination in addition to visual display, as when used for stage lighting or other decorative purposes. LED displays can offer higher contrast ratios than a projector and are thus an alternative to traditional projection screens, and they can be used for large, uninterrupted video walls. microLED displays are LED displays with smaller LEDs, which poses significant development challenges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LED street light</span> LED street light

An LED street light or road light is an integrated light-emitting diode (LED) light fixture that is used for street lighting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kvadrat (company)</span> Danish textile company

Kvadrat is a Danish textile company that produces and supplies textiles and textile-related products to architects, designers and private consumers in Europe and worldwide. Kvadrat was established in Denmark in 1968 with deep roots in Scandinavia's design tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingo Maurer</span> German industrial designer (1932–2019)

Ingo Maurer was a German industrial designer who specialised in the design of lamps and light installations. He was nicknamed "poet of light".

Luminous Interactive is a digital art platform created by Lendlease in collaboration with Ramus Illumination. It was officially opened in the Darling Quarter Precinct in Sydney central business district (CBD), on 18 May 2012.

Lumen maintenance is the most useful gauge to determine the lifetime or useful light output rating of an LED light source. Unlike traditional light sources such as incandescent lamps, LEDs rarely fail outright and instead continue to emit light, albeit at slowly diminishing rate over time. Lumen maintenance is the luminous flux remaining at any selected elapsed operating time. Lumen depreciation is the luminous flux lost over time, and thus the complement of lumen maintenance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meystyle</span>

Meystyle LED wallpaper & Fabric is a London-based company who specialise in designing and manufacturing bespoke wallpaper with the added feature of integrated light-emitting diodes. The company was initiated in 2004 as a collaboration between sisters Maria and Ekaterina Yaschuk, both graduates of the Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in London.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) produce light by the recombination of electrons and electron holes in a semiconductor, a process called "electroluminescence". The wavelength of the light produced depends on the energy band gap of the semiconductors used. Since these materials have a high index of refraction, design features of the devices such as special optical coatings and die shape are required to efficiently emit light. A LED is a long-lived light source, but certain mechanisms can cause slow loss of efficiency of the device or sudden failure. The wavelength of the light emitted is a function of the band gap of the semiconductor material used; materials such as gallium arsenide, and others, with various trace doping elements, are used to produce different colors of light. Another type of LED uses a quantum dot which can have its properties and wavelength adjusted by its size. Light-emitting diodes are widely used in indicator and display functions, and white LEDs are displacing other technologies for general illumination purposes.

References

  1. ↑ Schubert, E. Fred (2003). Light-emitting Diodes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0521823307.
  2. ↑ Blackely, Lachlan (2006). Wallpaper. London: Laurence King Ltd. p. 187. ISBN   1-85669-502-6.
  3. 1 2 Central Saint Martins Post-graduate Directory 2005/6. London: University of the Arts London. 2006.
  4. ↑ "Winner of Maison & Objet Projects award 2014". Meystyle.com. Meystyle. Archived from the original on 29 March 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  5. ↑ "LED Wallpaper". Ingo-maurer.com. Ingo Maurer. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  6. ↑ Wild Videowalls (2 October 2023). "LED Outdoor Videowall".
  7. ↑ "LOMOX OLED Innovation". Lomox.co.uk. Lomox. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  8. 1 2 "Philips Announces Partnership with Kvadrat Soft Cells to Bring Spaces Alive with luminous textile". Philips.com. Philips. 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2016.[ dead link ]
  9. ↑ Brownlee, S. (2008). "Paper Chase". Spaces. No. 20. Chester: Jazz Publishing. pp. 114–118.
  10. ↑ "Maria Yaschuk: Wire Geometrics". National Glass Centre. Archived from the original on 2019-01-19. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  11. 1 2 "Wallpaper design by Maria & Ekaterina Yaschuk". Eyes in. No. 3. Eyes in America Corp. 2011. pp. 10–11.
  12. ↑ Malik Chua, Jasmine (2010). ""Living" Wallpaper by High-Low Tech Monitors Your Environment". Inhabitat.com. Inhabitat. Archived from the original on 2017-10-11. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  13. ↑ "Living Wall". Highlowtech.org. High-Low Tech. 20 June 2013. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  14. ↑ Kaganskiy, Julia (2010). "MIT Media Lab's Interactive Living Wall". Vice.com. Vice. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  15. ↑ "LOMOX - Eco-friendly light emitting wallpaper". Go-gree.ae. Go Green. Archived from the original on 27 March 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  16. ↑ "Cool Light Emitting Wallpaper from Lomox". DigsDigs.com. DigsDigs. 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  17. ↑ "Light-Emitting Wallpaper". TheEngineer.co.uk. The Engineer. 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  18. 1 2 "LED Wallpaper - Ingo Maurer by Architects Paper" (PDF). ASCreation.com. AS Creation. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  19. ↑ Lisa, Ana (2012). "Ingo Maurer Unveils Innovative Geometric LED Wallpaper". Inhabitat.com. Inhabitat. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  20. ↑ Zimmer, Lori (2011). "Luminous LED Wallpaper Lends a Low-Energy Glow to Any Room". Inhabitat.com. Inhabitat. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  21. ↑ Archer, Nate (2007). "Light emitting wallpaper by jonas samson". Designboom.com. Designboom. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  22. ↑ "Light-Up Wallpaper Illuminates Interior Spaces". Dornob.com. Dornob Design Ideas Daily. 22 April 2009. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  23. ↑ "As if from beyond the grave here: emitting light wallpaper by Jonas Samson". Avso.org. AVSO. 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  24. ↑ Flahiff, Daniel (2008). "Luminescent Fiber Optic Wallpaper by Camilla Diedrich". Inhabitat.com. Inhabitat. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  25. ↑ Temple, Anjelika (2012). "Our Newest Interior Design Crush? Glow in the Dark Wallpaper by Flat Vernacular". Brit.co. BRIT+CO. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  26. ↑ Roblin, Amelia (2012). "Wallbrights Provide Customizable Illumination and Decoration". Trendhunter.com. Trend Hunter. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  27. ↑ "ED Decals: The Future of Wall Decor?". apartmenttherapy.com. Apartment Therapy. 2015. Archived from the original on 2017-03-27. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
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