Translucent wood

This material looks like any other piece of wood until you shine light through it, at which point you discover that, unlike any other wood product, it is translucent.

Modern innovative materials usually give to a traditional material (such as wood or concrete) some unespected features (brightness, lightness) that traditionally belong to another one.

Clic here to see the patent.

Measuring time by the Sun

For thousands of years, people used sundials to tell the time. The first sundials were used more than 3,500 years ago in Egypt.
A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun.
In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from a thin rod or a sharp, straight edge, onto a flat surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day.
As the sun moves across the sky, the shadow-edge progressively aligns with different hour-lines on the plate.

Clic here to see a patent of a modern adjustable sundial.



How to make a sundial on your own

Interactive light wall

In 2009 Philips presented Lumiblade®, an OLED installation, a luminescent wall that reacts directly to passers-by, creating mirrored reflections of their ‘shadows’ amid the light.
This installation is both functional and highly experiential, it invites to “play” with this new technology and experience it as much more than a light only: a softly glowing mirror, an interactive tool, a very aesthetic light source.

Clic here to see the OLED device patent by Philips.

Transparent and light transmitting concrete

The transparent concrete Litracon® is a combination of optical fibres and fine concrete.
It was developed by Hungarian architect Áron Losonczi since 2001 and it can be produced as prefabricated building blocks.

Clic here to view patent images.

Concrete wall light

Contrary to Litracon®, in Litracon pXL® there are no optical fibers for light transmission but a specially formed and patented plastic unit.
The light dots appear with regular distribution on the surface of the pXL® panels just like pixels on an LCD screen. Besides, it is easy to create patterns or even coloured logos out of the pixels.


Clic here to view patent images.