Offbeat lamp has OLEDs

Offbeat lamp has OLEDs

NEW YORK — Picture it as a tilted signpost with each sign a softly glowing panel or as a metal tree with phosphorescent leaves lighting up your desk.

This offbeat table lamp uses organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs, a new technology that is being hailed as the future both of TVs and of lighting. German designer Ingo Maurer and his lighting company this week showed the first OLED lamp you can buy, at his studio in Manhattan.

The “can buy” part is qualified, of course. Maurer hasn’t disclosed price of the 25 limited-edition copies of the lamp, but it will probably be in the “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” category.

Called “Early Future,” the lamp uses 10 OLED panels from Osram Opto Semiconductors, a subsidiary of German industrial company Siemens AG. Each panel measures about six inches by two inches by about one-eighth inch thick. One side has a thin layer of organic compounds, which glow when current is applied.

Maurer also made a one-off OLED fixture with nearly 100 panels suspended from the ceiling in an undulating mesh.

Several things have to be improved in OLEDs before they can become mainstream products, however. Osram’s panels are only just bright enough for a table lamp, and they last only 2,000 hours before dimming to half their brightness.

Preventing cyberterrorism

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Officials from around the world agree they must cooperate better to fight the threat of cyberterrorism at facilities such as nuclear power plants.

Government authorities and technology experts from more than 30 nations called for improved coordination at the meeting’s opening in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last week.

“The harsh reality is that [information technology] has become a tool for cybercrime and cyberterrorism,” Hamadoun Toure, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, the U.N.’s leading information technology agency, said in a speech.

“Cybersecurity must become a cornerstone of every aspect of keeping ourselves, our countries and our world safe.”

Delegates came from countries including Australia, Canada, France, India, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand and the United States.

Associated Press