Boston University College of Engineering, 10 May 2010

Smart lighting—the use of highly energy-efficient and controllable solid-state light sources both to illuminate a defined space and facilitate optical wireless communication among electronic devices within that space—recently took a major step forward. In April Professor Thomas Little (ECE) began fabricating a new LED-based prototype that the National Science Foundation Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center at Boston University developed over the past year. Fulfilling an initial order for 40 units, Little is now shipping these devices to the Center’s industrial and educational outreach partners, a development that could spark new advances leading to commercialization.

“We now have a working system that's robust enough to send to others to experiment with,” said Little, co-principal investigator and associate director of the NSF Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center, a program involving BU, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and the University of New Mexico that facilitates research, industrial collaborations and educational initiatives aimed at advancing intelligent lighting systems and the development of transformative uses of light. “Our industrial partners and others can use this prototype as a reference design that they can adapt to develop a commercially viable system.”

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