Digital tiles transform any space into a personal cinema screen

Nov. 1, 2018
Lumentiles are nearing production, allowing the user to configure "smart" color or video displays.

Announced back in 2016 by Laser Focus World, the 'Luminous Electronic Tile', or LUMENTILE project (see https://www.lumentile-project.eu), which mixes the simplicity of a plain ceramic tile with sophisticated touchscreen technology to create a light source with smarts, is now close to producing product. All it takes is one tap to change the color, look, or mood of any room in your house, office, or public location.

A combination of ceramic, glass and organic electronics, the luminous tile includes structural materials, solid-state light sources and electronic chips and can be controlled with a central computer, a smart phone or tablet.

This is the first time anyone has tried to embed electronics and photonics into ceramics or glass for a large-scale application. With the ability to play videos or display images, the tiles allow the user to turn their walls into a large cinema screen, where each A4 sized unit acts as a pixel of the overall display.

Project coordinator, professor Guido Giuliani of the University of Pavia says, "This is not just a digital panel to replace an animated poster like you see on the Underground network, but a whole new way of life. You are instantly in control of your own environment: if you don't like your bathroom in blue, now you can change it to green with one tap. If you like flowery wallpaper, ducks or Christmas trees, that's up to you."

Each measuring the size of a standard, rectangular A4 piece of paper with their own internal power source, the tiles can be tailored entirely to the customer’s needs: completely or partially covering the walls of a room, a floor, ceiling, or perhaps total submersion. So long as the pieces tessellate, any shapes will be possible such as hexagonal or triangular ceramic tiles.

The tiles, which can be switched off so that a basic silver, black or white color can be a default setting, are equipped with an on board microcontroller, and operate on a lexical network invisible to the user. The surface of each tile has uniform and efficient illumination, achieved by LUMENTILE's smart light management system, a new approach based on a light guiding slab and spatially selective light extraction.

With the ability to configure the tiles to become 'smart floor panels' that recognise when an elderly user is no longer standing or has perhaps fallen, or in security situations where a floor will be sensitive to intruders, the tiles have the capacity to act as a smart floor.

With its durable nature, the luminous ceramic tile could be used externally: placing it on the outside of a building creates the obvious potential for advertising or changing the color or appearance. However, the tiles can be flat or curved to fit around columns or uneven contours. Military vehicles, for example, fitted with this external 'skin' crossing a variety of terrains, such as woodland, desert or water would be capable of unlimited camouflage at the flick of a switch.

LUMENTILE received a grant of 2,470,113.75 euro from Horizon 2020 via the Photonics Public Private Partnership.

Coordinated in Italy by UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PAVIA, LUMENTILE is comprised of a number of partners from Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, including TEKNOLOGIAN TUTKIMUSKESKUS VTT (Finland), ECLEXYS SAGL (Switzerland), JULIGHT SRL, KERAPLAN SRL (Italy), STUDIO ITINERANTE ARQUITECTURA SL, KNOWLEDGE INNOVATION MARKET S.L. (Spain).

SOURCE: Matter PR; http://www.matterpr.com/

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.

Sponsored Recommendations

Melles Griot® XPLAN™ CCG Lens Series

March 19, 2024
IDEX Health & Science sets a new standard with our Melles Griot® XPLAN™ CCG Lens Series fluorescence microscope imaging systems. Access superior-quality optics with off-the-shelf...

Spatial Biology

March 19, 2024
Spatial Biology refers to the field that integrates spatial information into biological research, allowing for the study of biological systems in their native spatial context....

Custom-Engineered Optical Solutions for Your Application

March 19, 2024
We combine advanced optical design and manufacturing technology, with decades of experience in critical applications, to take you from first designs to ongoing marketplace success...

Semrock Optical Filters Resources

March 19, 2024
Looking for more information about Semrock optical filters? Explore sets by fluorophore, download the 2023 Semrock catalog and more.

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Laser Focus World, create an account today!