idleprocess
Flashaholic
From Popular Science:
Catch BMW's buzzword-infused press release here.
BMW is claiming 170 lumens/watt, which seems suspiciously high, especially since the method of going from monochromatic (blue laser) source to white involves the all-too-familiar phosphor approach used for LED's. I'm guessing that's the potential efficiency of the laser itself, in the lab, running at low power, with infinite heatsinking.
It seems like you throw the advantage of coherent light out the window once you send the beam through a phosphor media, which will naturally scatter it. I also suspect that the hoopla around the supposedly smaller source in a laser vs a LED will not translate into any significant reduction in volume.
Comments? Sounds like interesting tech, but I doubt it's going to stomp all over other technologies anytime soon...
Calling laser headlights "the next logical step" after the LED headlamp, BMW has announced that it will be rolling out laser-based illumination on its next-gen BMW i8 concept and will further develop laser headlight technology for extension across its various models. Why? It saves fuel. And presumably because laser headlights is something we've all secretly wanted on our European sports cars since MI6 tricked out 007's first ride.
Catch BMW's buzzword-infused press release here.
BMW is claiming 170 lumens/watt, which seems suspiciously high, especially since the method of going from monochromatic (blue laser) source to white involves the all-too-familiar phosphor approach used for LED's. I'm guessing that's the potential efficiency of the laser itself, in the lab, running at low power, with infinite heatsinking.
It seems like you throw the advantage of coherent light out the window once you send the beam through a phosphor media, which will naturally scatter it. I also suspect that the hoopla around the supposedly smaller source in a laser vs a LED will not translate into any significant reduction in volume.
Comments? Sounds like interesting tech, but I doubt it's going to stomp all over other technologies anytime soon...