Technology continues to introduce new tools to the market.  Our lives are improved by a number of developments, such as theMicrowave.  There are many inventions and discoveries; only some have a large impact on our lives.  Computers had their beginnings in huge, refrigerated warehouses, and now most people are able to afford a personal home system.  So we find that not only the initial inventions are beneficial, but also the way they are continuously improved.

By continuing research in areas of current discovery, scientists are finding faster, smaller, less costly methods of offering the same tools.  Our lives are revolutionalized by smaller stereo systems with better sound, more energy efficient appliances, smaller computers with more memory, etc.  There are many examples which most of us would be able to come up with just by looking at our cars, our kitchens, and any other place where we would find gizmos and gadgets.

There is the occasion where we hear about a new and upcoming technology, which we don't get the opportunity to see in the real world.  Maybe you have had the opportunity to see a 'natural gas' car, or an 'electric' car.  We have been hearing about them for a while, but they are not yet mainstream.  How about the new 'flat' television sets?  You have probably seen the commercials, but most likely you haven't seen one at the stores, or in a friend’s house yet.  When prices come down, most likely we will see more of these in homes of average income families.

We are all aware of many technological advances which we have heard about, but did not see do well on the market.  For the few who have heard of 'mini-disk players/recorder' you know that this was a great offering.  A small disk that could store more music, and have a better sound quality than a cassette tape.  It is still offered today, but the market is small.  Another example would be the 'laser disk player'.  Less than a handful of people I know made this purchase.  The equipment was expensive, even if the movies were not.  The fact that a Video Cassette was smaller than a Laser Disk (like a CD, but the size of a record) could be why this didn't take off in the consumer market.  Now we have DVD players, even compact ones, which play movies on DVD (media like a CD).  Compact, cheap, efficient, and available products are what do well.

Researchers out there excited about what may be tomorrow’s greatest sensation.  Right now collaboration is going on between corporations, and countries to be able to make big advances in offering the PRS-LED.  Using semi-conductor technology they have created 'The White LED(light-emitting-diodes)'.  They are trying to reinvent the light bulb!  This would not be any ordinary light bulb, but one that would require less power than traditional light bulbs, emit more light, and potentially last over 50 years. Imagine bright and cheap light, for a fraction of the cost of today’s conventional light bulbs.

This may not seem like a large contribution.  We have already had numerous new light bulbs introduction to the market over the last few years.  They were more expensive and promised to last up to 8 years.  So why would they become excited over this new discovery?   We can look at this from two perspectives, the technical reasons why this technology is superior, and the practical uses of it.

Lets begin with what we currently use.  Traditional incandescent light bulbs have glass bodies, which contain gas and a delicate filament.  An eletrical current passes through the filament which heats up and reacts with the gas to glow.  This created a bright luminescent light, along with heat.  This glass object can break easily.  A fissure or crack in the seal of the bulb kills the vacuem that is required; if the filament burns away or breaks then it doesn't work either.

The new White LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) are solid state devices that generate light.  Superconductor technology was used in creating it, so its composition makes it as stable as a diamond.  They are shock proof and vibration proof.  This attributes their longevity of close to 50 years.  The LED doesn't illuminate as great of an area, it is brighter light, more concentrated.  The white LEDs produce "300 lumens per Watt" which makes them more than 15 times more energy efficient than current bulbs.  Because they are not creating radiation like current bulbs, there is no heat production.  Not only do they not create heat, but they can operate at extreme temperatures (-40 to + 80 C°).

No matter how good technically it looks, if it is not practical then the consumer won't buy it.  Why would we the consumers go for this product?   Placing these 'great white hopes' in our home would mean we wouldn't have to change a bulb for 50 years. For most us transient people we may never have to change one.  So the expense of replacing bulbs drops substantially.  The electric bills drops for two reasons:  the PRS-LED is brighter and uses less energy, since no heat is produced by the PRS-LED we have lower cooling expenses.  Outside of the home we could use these lights in walkways without worrying about the durability.  Camping out would mean 35 hours of stories of story telling to the convential 6 hours.

When we consider the larger scale, then we notice that the savings would be monumental.  The amount of energy savings has been estimate to be "2.5 billion Kilowatt hours" per year in the US if we were to change all of the traffic signals.  This give new meaning to the term "think global, act local".  So keep listening for more news on PRS-LED technology.