At 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide, the towering orb is not only the world's biggest spherical structure, but also the largest LED screen, according to a press release issued by Sphere Entertainment Co. The exterior of Sphere consists of approximately 1.2 million hockey puck-shaped LEDs, each of which contains 48 individual diodes capable of emitting 256 million different colors. And it only cost $2.3 billion.
In keeping with China’s status as a global leader in technological innovation, the opening ceremony made up for its relatively low number of participants with an extraordinary spectacle created by an array of lasers, lights, enormous LED screens, and pyrotechnics. Despite the use of plenty of cutting-edge technology, however, the ceremony’s imagery was largely inspired by the natural world, with the narrative centered around the beginning of spring and featuring recreations of a variety of Chinese flora and fauna, including willow trees and butterflies. The most spectacular moment? The light sticks paraded by dancers that unfolded to create dandelions, before fireworks exploded above to represent the seeds of the flower spreading across the earth.
While director Zhang Yimou may be best known for the kaleidoscopic cinematography, lavish costuming, and eye-popping sets of his wuxia martial-arts epics Hero and House of Flying Daggers, the three-time Oscar-nominated director’s themes of resilience and national pride made him the obvious choice to direct the opening ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, widely remembered as one of the most dazzling of all time. So it followed that he was enlisted to direct this year’s proceedings too—and he once again realized his distinctive vision with the ravishing visual splendor that has become his signature.
Here is a summary of some of the tech used for the ceremony
For much of automotive history, innovation came to headlights gradually. But over the last few decades, the pace has quickened. Now, automakers are using LED technology to create arrays of tiny lights that can cast complex beam patterns. The so-called adaptive driving beams can illuminate an entire road while shutting off any bulbs that would shine in the eyes of oncoming drivers.
Even more sophisticated headlights have such high resolution that they can display graphics or even animations. These could be used to display warnings or other important information in front of the driver. In theory, the technology could enable a car to project an entire movie from its headlamps.
"Operating-room lights have barely changed in decades. Mayo Clinic and Zeeland, Mich.-based automotive electronics supplier Gentex Corp. are creating overhead lights that use cameras and machine-vision algorithms to alter the intensity and direction of light, minimize glare and eliminate shadows.
Eventually, surgeons may be able to set the lighting based on the type of procedure and the person performing it, simply by asking the system to adjust. Beyond that, the lights may have an ultraviolet setting that would sanitize the room overnight."
Selected from entries by 110 registered design teams, the winning design is Superbloom, a cluster of green pipes that rise to various heights before curving out to hold light fixtures and other elements. Able to be augmented with features like benches, electric vehicle charging stations, umbrellas, and solar panels, the design can morph into thousands of different heights and configurations depending on the specific place and its requirements.
Created by L.A.-based design collaborative Project Room, the streetlight is less a design than a system, according to lead designer Joakim Dahlqvist.
LG showed off its OLED TV display in an immersive installation at CES. The Massive Curve of Nature combines hundreds of LG OLED TV displays into a towering wave. The video of LG’s booth at CES 2019 doesn’t do it justice. The massive display seemed bigger than life thanks to an array of mirrors that made the art installation appear to appear infinite.
By combining GE’s lighting knowledge with Intel’s sensor-processing expertise, Current created a full-fledged lighting solution that is as efficient to deploy as it is to operate.
In commercial buildings, Current’s lights can detect ambient temperature, humidity and carbon monoxide levels. They can determine whether a room is full of people, has a just a few occupants or is empty.
Together these measurements provide the information needed to adjust temperature and lighting automatically. Plus, intelligent lights can integrate with conference room scheduling systems to simplify planning and keep energy bills low.
Intelligent lights can “see” a building and its grounds using cameras and motion detectors and “hear” what’s going on with sound sensors. In many cases, the sensors can eliminate the need for single-purpose security cameras and motion detectors, helping cut capital expenditure (because less equipment is needed) and operational expenditure (because there are fewer systems to maintain).
If a window breaks or someone yells for help, those lights can alert owners, police or firefighters. Over time, property managers might spot trends to help with long-range planning and predictive maintenance.
By 2012, over 40 percent of the 80,000 streetlights in Detroit were not functioning, leaving the troubled city mired in darkness. To compound the problem, much of the grid relied on a series of outdated circuits—if one transformer went out, every light in the series went dark.
Flush with the resources needed to execute his vision, Jones’s team has outpaced expectations—the Authority is well over halfway to its goal of relighting the entire city, and has replaced more than 42,000 lights. Localized engineering studies have given the team the resources to discourage copper theft by switching to aluminum wiring, and the PLA is moving away from the faulty series circuit system. The new bulbs being installed are 150-watt equivalent LEDs—more energy efficient and two times brighter than the archaic high-pressure sodium bulbs they replace.
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