Panasonic invents a new way to light up the modern world

摘要

The assignment sounded ridiculous at first: take tiny light emitting diodes, or LEDs, and use them to cast great beams of light 100 meters into the sky, to light the self-standing communications tower. "It was a pipe dream," said Tetsuo Watanabe, lighting system engineer for Panasonic, soon after the successful opening of a spectacularly lit Tokyo Skytree in May, 2012. "At the time, conventional wisdom said LEDs could light up a room just fine, but not massive structures," he said. But as Tokyo Skytree was to be both a grand statement of Japan's engineering ingenuity and an "eco tower" to inspire the world, it demanded the energy saving potential of "all LED" lighting.