Will fiber optics replace the lightbulb?

[jpak]

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6111105.html

If fiber-optic lighting systems are good enough for the Declaration of Independence, they should be good enough for the dairy case, explains John Davenport, CEO of Fiberstars.

The Solon, Ohio-based company has come up with a way to combine industrial-grade lamps with fiber-optic technology to create interior lighting systems that consume far less energy than traditional fluorescent or incandescent bulbs. A single 70-watt metal halide high-intensity discharge lamp from Fiberstars linked to the company's fiber system can provide as much lighting as eight 50-watt incandescent bulbs.

"We consume about one-third of the energy of the best fluorescent systems and about 25 percent of the typical fluorescent system," he said. Additionally, fiber lighting won't emit mercury (like fluorescent bulbs, if broken), radiate heat or give off ultraviolet light.

To date, the company, which was founded in the late 1980s and has received around $16 million in federal research grants, has mostly sold its EFO (efficient fiber optics) lighting systems for use in niche applications, in part because fiber costs more. Las Vegas hotels have bought them to beam special effects onto ceilings and walls.

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[ThomCat]

1. That is very cool.

I don't see this getting implemented very quickly or very widely but it would be nice if this was more widely available.

[MADem]

2. It would be WONDERFUL!!! Imagine, walls that light!!!!

No more bulbs hanging from the ceiling....!!!

[acmejack]

3. There was this the other day too.

I remembered it amazingly enough...
snip>
Italian company makes light-up clothing

PRATO, Italy, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Italian company Luminex announced it has been developing clothing products lined with light-generating fiber-optic technology.

The company has created shirts, pants and shawls that glow using fiber optics, the BBC reported Monday.

"It is a fabric containing, amongst other things, fiber-optics, but there is also a technical side to it," said Luminex's Cristiano Peruzzi.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060828-020135-1596r

[intaglio]

4. Fibre optic lighting has been around for at least 30 years

The British Library (when it was still in the British Museum building) used it to light certain manuscripts to protect them from heat and ultraviolet.