A new joint effort between 3M and Todd Bracher has resulted in a new kind of LED reflector that doesn’t just spread out all the light from a single LED, but it also ‘shares’ that light with neighboring reflectors. Using a single high powered LED in one of the lightfalls reflector, other nearby reflectors reflect light as if they were also populated by a single LED and share that light with other similar reflectors in a circle of eight.
The key to the Virtual LED reflector is not just super nifty design to share a single light source but the super high reflectivity of the new 3M material covering the reflectors helps to bounce back 98% of photons. The current design for the grouping of Virtual LED reflectors is currently targeted at lighting up big spaces, walls and large rooms with few LEDs but it would be awesome to see future LED reef lights use fewer LEDs and this same reflector concept. [Designboom via Gizmodo]
