Update: Philips told us that the interactive mirror will actually cost only €1,500, and will be available in September. Update 2: The mirror is now available, but for €2,990 - quite more than Philips promised...
After teasing us for almost a month, Philips finally launched their new modular 3D OLED system, the Livingscrulpture 3D. It's a kinetic system based on modular OLED blocks. The rectangular Lumiblade panels are placed on rods that can change their height - thus easily creating 3D surfaces.
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The system consists of base plates, each one holding 16 OLED panels (4x4). The OLED themselves are rectangular, 76x76 mm each (including the frame, the active area is 61.4x60.5 mm) and the color temperature is 3,000K. The typical luminance per OLED is about 1,500 cd/m2. The base panel size is 316x316 mm.
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Of course this thing ain't cheap. Philips told us that each base plate will cost about €700 (so that's about €43 per OLED panel). A square meter will cost about €7,000. Together with the new system, Philips also launched their new web site - The New Art of Light (update: it is no longer online). The web site will include Philips complete OLED portfolio, but will focus on the new LivingSculpture 3D system, - and will include an online configurator that can be used to create your system and download files for your rendering or architect software.
Philips also unveiled the new LivingShapes interactive mirror. I really like this one - it's a square installation that includes 64 (8x8) square panels. It includes "intelligent" sensor technology that detects the outline of the person looking at the mirror and switches off the OLEDs that are in the field of vision - thus turning it into a mirror. It's clever and beautiful.
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Philips says that the interactive mirror will cost €1,500, which means you pay around €23 per OLED panel (even less if you consider all the other parts of the mirror) - which is actually very cheap for an OLED. Philips also say that the mirror will start shipping in September.
Looks very nice and I think one can build nice designs with that. Personally I would love to get my hands on that to play around.
However to be honest I don't really see who is supposed to be the customer for those Living Sculpture modules. Artists and Designers? Possibly, but wouldn't they normally go for a support structure of their own design? Luminaire manufacturers? Hardly, as I think that would cut too deep into their own value chain. Do-it-yourself tech freaks? Maybe, but I think the price is more than a little steep for that. Like I said i would love to play around with it, but at that price?
Basically Philips is trying to sell a light engine with half a luminaire already attached to it....I just have a hard time seeing how this fits into the existing lighting market.
The living shapes system on the other hand might become a nice fixture in the consumer market if the price for OLEDs ever drops down far enough.