One of the most interesting innovations in contemporary lighting design is the use of fiber optics. Unfortunately, designers still have not found widespread uses for them. However, they have a lot of intrinsic potential. In this article, I will discuss that potential and consider some of the powerful uses to which they could be put.
Fiber optics work very differently than other light sources. They are highly reflective tubes of light that enable the light to be produced at one end of the tube, but released at almost the same level of brightness at the other end of the tube. Other fiber optic tubes are translucent, allowing the light to be released equally all the way up and down the tube.
The reason this is so significant is that fiber optics are the only source of light where the light generation and the light emission are completely separable. In an incandescent light, for example, the source of the light just is the tungsten filament, while in fluorescent light, the source of the light just is the edge of the tube. However, with fiber optics, the source of the light and the emission can be put in completely different places.
Why is this significant? Incandescent lights and halogen lights are extremely hot, and this provides substantial limitations as to where they can be placed. Fluorescent lights are somewhat more flexible, but because of danger of (toxic) breakage, they need to be kept away from any possible impact. Fiber optics, on the other hand, can be placed literally anywhere. They can even be placed underwater. Consider, for instance, the possibility of having a light that will help unclog a drain pipe or that can be placed directly on the walls of a shower.
Why, then, has fiber optics not completely taken over lighting? The reason is that they are currently extremely expensive, and no market has developed that is sufficient to fund the kind of innovation needed to develop the material. However, it will not necessarily be this way forever. Material costs change all of the time, and this is true for fiber-optics as well. As they drop, they should become more and more popular in lighting design.
