Philips Simplicity shows off vision for the future of street lighting

In these green times, companies are looking everywhere to make a buck -- er, save the planet. Philips Simplicity didn't go much further than the sidewalk to find inspiration for its latest eco-friendly innovation, the Light Blossom, a self-sustainable street lamp that has triple-duty petals. They're peppered with energy-efficient LEDs to illuminate the street, naturally, but also have solar panels on top and can spin around in a stiff breeze to recharge. At night they'll emit a soft glow, intended to cut down on light pollution, but will grow brighter whenever a pedestrian comes by. It all sounds wonderfully efficient, but with lights popping on and off as you go, it could make that late-night walk of shame a little more conspicuous than you might like.

[proee @ Oct 17th 2008 5:02PM]

This is *brilliant* and the solar pods could fold up for protection in case of a hail storm.

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 17th 2008 5:58PM]

How exactly do you screw up a Rick Roll?

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 17th 2008 6:15PM]

I guess, its something along the lines of, not being able to reply to the correct comment.

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 17th 2008 6:16PM]

Did I just insult my own intelligence?

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 17th 2008 6:17PM]

Yes.

[ijyt @ Oct 17th 2008 5:02PM]

Sounds pretty nifty.

[tamosius @ Oct 17th 2008 5:24PM]

sounds pretty expensive..

[Ross @ Oct 17th 2008 8:41PM]

@tamosius

Hey, at least the cash won't be wasted on education, street lights are number one priority.

[Darkroom @ Oct 17th 2008 9:55PM]

nifty... yeah... for the Gay Village...

[chris @ Oct 18th 2008 1:09AM]

@ Darkroom

get a freaking life...gay bashing was so 1960

[phanbouy @ Oct 18th 2008 1:23AM]

".gay bashing was so 1960"

you must be new to America, where allegedly grown and educated men can slam a self-powered street light as "omg teh gay". Proof that small minded reactionaries hide in every corner.

[Ellianth @ Oct 18th 2008 1:34AM]

/me will stop visiting any gay village that puts up those lights.

[THizzle7XU @ Oct 18th 2008 2:44AM]

$100 these debut in San Francisco for countless reasons.

[Rocketboy @ Oct 18th 2008 10:39AM]

Chris... They bashed happy-go-lucky people in the 60's?

[Wwhat @ Oct 19th 2008 8:25AM]

Yes rocketboy, and the bashing culminated into something called "the 90's", ouch

[SFO Kevin @ Oct 17th 2008 7:40PM]

OOOOH!!! We need these here in the Castro!!!!!

[CraigJ @ Oct 17th 2008 5:18PM]

what? an 80's video starring a pedophile?

[scottc00 @ Oct 17th 2008 5:35PM]

All street lights should have Wi-Fi routers in them :)

[StalematE @ Oct 17th 2008 5:46PM]

in a perfect world...

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 17th 2008 7:00PM]

... where Don La Fontane was still alive...

[Ross @ Oct 17th 2008 8:44PM]

or they could build a couple of Wimax towers instead of putting a gazillion Wi-Fi routers up

btw, I'm aware gazillion is not a number.

[karts41 @ Oct 18th 2008 2:19AM]

10 bucks sez they can fire lasers out the centre

[Deed @ Oct 18th 2008 7:57AM]

Hey, wasn't there an article here about wifi/somthing similar being put in office lighting? If I'm right with that, then streetlight wireless could be looming.

[)law( @ Oct 17th 2008 5:33PM]

the lamp in that pic looks like it came straight out of tentacle pr0n....

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 17th 2008 6:25PM]

You're into some kinky shit, dude.

http://www.hotsweatytentacles.com

[)law( @ Oct 17th 2008 6:34PM]

This comming from someone who threw up a link. Anyways i aint in to that, i just said thats what the lamp looked liked sorta 0_0

[Paul @ Oct 17th 2008 6:36PM]

OK... raise your hand if you clicked that link out of disturbed curiosity only to find it was a broken link.

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 17th 2008 6:59PM]

Paul, sorry to disappoint you and your 'curiousity'.

[Mr.Ironic @ Oct 17th 2008 11:14PM]

I'm really disappointed. Just wait till I get my clammy suckers on you.

[Rufus White @ Oct 18th 2008 8:05AM]

I fully clicked it hoping to find some decent tentacle porn, but alas.

I love the tentacle.

[grifmx @ Oct 17th 2008 5:58PM]

These would be better than current street lights, but look kinda goofy and are probably expensive.

When I walk outside, telephone poles and street lamps clutter the landscape. In new communities they bury lots of this stuff, but someone needs to invent ways of affordably retrofitting older neighborhoods to replace ugly telephone poles and street lights.

I think eventually electricity can be wireless and the transmitters will function as streetlights and look like normal trees with holiday lights on them.

Pretty!

[Jon Acheson @ Oct 17th 2008 5:58PM]

Mugger A to Mugger B: "Look, there's one!"

[Obi-Habby @ Oct 17th 2008 8:19PM]

Honestly thats the first thing I thought of was the lights working as a beacon for mugging victims.

[Wwhat @ Oct 19th 2008 8:28AM]

Perhaps they should only used them in places where there still is civilisation then.

[)law( @ Oct 17th 2008 6:24PM]

I see that the word fail gets tossed around a lot thses days. I think it would fit in nice and snug right here. Fail jensh, fail.

[rawnnie @ Oct 17th 2008 6:28PM]

Wow, I'm already in love with these. Not only are they pretty functional, but look straight out of a dim/dull and gloomy movie set.

[fuma @ Oct 17th 2008 6:41PM]

Novel, but.. freezing rain and snow on top of it would stop it dead... That thing wouldn't last a day in a good ole New England nor'easterner! It would probably melt out in Cali where they really need them too.

[c-dub @ Oct 17th 2008 7:03PM]

Na, just blown the f*** away by Santa Ana winds..

[Phred @ Oct 17th 2008 7:04PM]

"...but with lights popping on and off as you go..."

That's still better than at my school where our street lights tend to turn off as pedestrians walk by.

[Str1ker @ Oct 17th 2008 9:36PM]

They look gay.

[phanbouy @ Oct 18th 2008 1:38AM]

if you stop copulating with street lights maybe they won't

[Wwhat @ Oct 19th 2008 8:31AM]

It's funny that there are several comments about 'gay', because to me they look like something from some game like WoW, but of course you might classify such games as gay, in the other sense.
I guess there are large part of the world where guys fear the color pink though, well large part of america I should perhaps say.

[GETYOID @ Oct 18th 2008 10:18AM]

"green times"? Please. There is no global warming. Its a hoax! http://www.discussglobalwarming.com/blog

[Wwhat @ Oct 19th 2008 8:34AM]

If there is or not it IS ironic that plants need CO2 to grow, that's what they do, it's their thing, hitting the ols CO2 all day, yet reducing CO2 is called green.

[Wwhat @ Oct 19th 2008 8:26AM]

He likes the auto-lighting tiles, what's wrong with that though?

[JustFrozen @ Oct 20th 2008 2:01PM]

Who's job is it to scrape off all the bird poo from the solar cells on top?

[vennessa @ Oct 21st 2008 4:18PM]

I think its a great product and it would really do good for our environment. I don't see why anyone wouldn't like this idea. Plus it looks really cool too it would add art and function to our streets and that is what we need.