Not to mention dorky glasses.

The first prototype shows an image of a dollar sign — apparently the researchers are already thinking about commercialization. While it currently can display only simple images (similar in complexity to a cheap dollar-store calculator), Imec says future versions should be able to control light transmission to the retina, create different colored irises, and function as a heads-up display, which could superimpose almost any image right onto your field of vision.

You can see the new contact lenses in this movie from Imec … with appropriately James Bond-ish music:

The LCD display technology that Imec created allows the use of almost all of the contact lens surface, unlike LED-based applications that only enable a few pixels. In fact, Imec says, the technology will work for a range of pixel sizes and numbers.

The main challenge, of course, beside the thinness, has been the shape:

“Normally, flexible displays using liquid crystal cells are not designed to be formed into a new shape, especially not a spherical one,” Jelle De Smet, the project’s primary researcher, said in a statement. ”Thus, the main challenge was to create a very thin, spherically curved substrate with active layers that could withstand the extreme molding processes.”

Imec, which claims to be three to ten years ahead of the industry, created the new contact lens at the Center for Microsystems Technology.

It’s almost too bad that Apple has already patented its term for very high-density, high-quality screens. Because this truly has the potential to be a real retina display.

photo credit: jonycunha via photopin cc

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You’ve likely played Angry Birds across several different platforms by now, but you haven’t played it like this: Samsung today announced that it will be bringing the uber popular game to its Smart TVs with motion controls.

On Samsung’s Smart Interaction television sets, you’ll be able to send off those irate avians by making a slingshot motion with your hand. Additional motions will let you use every bird’s unique power.

In short, there’s no way this won’t look absolutely ridiculous.

Samsung says it’s been working with Rovio for a year to implement the motion controls. Angry Birds will be available for free on Samsung’s LED 7500 TV and higher models, as well as on the Plasma 8000, later this month.

Samsung initially announced that it would be offering Angry Birds back at CES, but there was no mention of motion controls back then. The company will also soon be offering an Angry Birds animation channel.

Additionally, Samsung announced its most baller television set yet: a 75-inch behemoth that retails for $9,999. The ES9000 3D LED set (below) brings Samsung into big-screen territory that’s typically reserved for DLP sets from Mitsubishi and a dwindling number of other manufacturers. The TV includes all of Samsung’s Smart TV functionality as well as a new feature called “Sound Share” that lets it connect wirelessly to Samsung’s home theater speakers.

The ES9000 will be available at retailers in August.

Japanese in Tokyo recently celebrated a Hotaru (in English, “firefly”) Festival by lighting up the Sumida River with 100,000 softball-sized, blue LED balls.

The balls drifted slowly down the river, creating a glowing blur when viewed from afar. They were powered by the sun, and they were collected by a large net at the end of their route.

The Firefly Festival, which celebrates those magical little insects whose glowing butts are mesmerizing to us human types, is a fairly new fête tacked onto the end of Japan’s Golden Week, which contains such national holidays as Greenery Day, Children’s Day, and Constitution Memorial Day. The holiday has its roots in 17th-19th century traditions of catching fireflies by the Sumida in spring; fireflies are no longer found along the banks of the Sumida, which today winds through the center of a global metropolis.

Panasonic provided the orbs, which also functioned as an opportunity for the corporation to promote its LED lightbulbs.

Just in time for Earth Day, Dutch electronics company Philips is unveiling a new super energy-efficient light bulb today with a shelf life that should last about 25 years.

The catch? It costs about $60, but Philips is said to have forged deals with some stores to bring that cost down to about $20, according to the BBC. Still, that price might be too high for consumers, as VentureBeat has previously pointed out.

The new bulbs are made of light emitting diodes (LEDs) that are more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs, and have same color quality as standard bulbs. LEDs are typically found in TVs, computers, and car headlights.

Philip’s new bulb won the Bright Tomorrow competition last year from the U.S. Department of Energy, which asked companies to create an affordable energy-efficient alternative to the standard 60-watt incandescent light bulb. Philip was an easy winner, as the only entrant in the competition.

Even at the cheaper $20 price, the new LED lights face heavy competition from the much cheaper  compact fluorescent bulbs.

The new bulbs hit retail store shelves today.

Photo via Philips

“We want people to think about lightbulbs and the innovation behind them, we want you to throw away lightbulbs because ours are better and more energy-efficient,” Bill Watkins, Bridgelux chief executive and former Seagate CEO, told VentureBeat.

The company produces solid-state lighting, or light bulbs made of light emitting diodes (LEDs) that are more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs. LEDs are typically found in TVs, computers, and even car headlights, but the technology has previously been too expensive to be used in a simple consumer light bulb. Bridgelux changed that by releasing cheaper and more energy-efficient light bulbs that can be used in lamps and overhead light fixtures. The company backs up its products with a five-year warranty.

Bridgelux holds more than 600 patent filings worldwide and has developed many LED products including light bulbs that can be easily replaced when a diode burns out.

Bridgelux will use the fundraising to research and develop LED chips with silicon, which can be used in a larger LEDs for more light emission. Kaistar is teaming up with Bridgelux as a manufacturing partner for these new LEDs. The company also has several programs that the funding will go towards.

“We’ve recently rolled out a pilot program to give thousands of businesses and homes five free light bulbs that connect to a smart meter and be monitored by a utility company. The power company can then adjust the amount of energy flowing to the light bulb during peak and off-peak hours,” said Watkins.

Bridgelux is based in Livermore, California and has more than 130 employees. The company has been heavily funded in the past, with a $34 million investment in 2009 and $21 million in 2011 from Vantage Point Venture Partners, VC firm DCM, Chrysalix Energy, and El Dorado ventures.

That brings LED lighting, which is much more efficient than typical incandescent lights, slightly closer to commercial viability. LED lights typically costs around $18 per kilolumen of light produced, while incandescent bulbs are around $2.20 per kilolumen. LED lighting bulbs probably won’t reach that point until 2015, Lux Research analyst Murray McCutcheon told VentureBeat.

“A 60-watt equivalent bulb price of $15 is still about 50 percent higher than the price point which will enable widespread consumer adoption,” he said. “However, the announcement shows the kind of price pressure faced by lighting giants such as Sylvania and Philips, both of which offer 60-watt equivalents for about $40 retail, and we expect similar low-priced LED offerings out of Chinese LED firms this year.”

The omni-directional bulbs announced today generate between 50 and 70 lumens — a measurement of light output — per watt of electricity consumed. A typical incandescent bulb only generates around 14.6 lumens per watt. But incandescent bulbs have the advantage of generating a warm light more similar to sunlight that consumers like more, McCutcheon said.

“It’s also important to remember that price is not the only measure of an LED bulb, the color — warm versus cool — and distribution of the light are important, as well as the quality of the construction,” he said. “Warm white LEDs are demanded by consumers but are more expensive to manufacture than the typical blue-ish tinged cool white LEDs.”

LED lighting providers should capture around 30 percent of the commercial lighting market by 2015. But LED lighting won’t even crack the residential markets until around 2020, when it will have an opportunity to capture around 40 percent of the market, McCutcheon said.

LED light bulbs haven’t taken off yet because the price tag per LED bulb can be as high as $50. But the latest generation of light bulbs can generate as much light as a 100-watt incandescent bulb using as little as 14 watts of power. Those LED bulb versions will be out sometime next year. That means consumers can save a lot of money over the life of the LED light — but they still have to pay a lot of money upfront, which can cut out casual buyers.

Businesses also stand to save an enormous amount of money because they are more sensitive to the costs of lighting. There are a number of companies that are also working on a “smart” lighting grid that dynamically distributes lighting where it is needed using a combination of electricity usage monitoring and motion detection. Those companies are trying to make lighting behave like a broadband network of sorts — meaning they can be controlled from a central “router” that can monitor electricity usage and turn off lights that aren’t in use.

Phillips is also releasing a 17-watt LED bulb that can generate as much light as a 75-watt bulb. That bulb will again carry a pretty hefty price tag — between $40 and $45 — and will come out sometime in the fourth quarter this year. Like most other LED bulbs, it will last around 25 times longer than an incandescent light bulb, which means that consumers who pick up the LED light will probably earn back the cost of the bulb in electricity cost and light bulb purchase savings.

This post is brought to you by IBM. As always, VentureBeat is adamant about maintaining editorial objectivity. IBM had no involvement in the content of this or other posts. For more information on how IBM can help create a Smarter Planet, go here.

We’ve written before about how software that makes buildings more energy-efficient will become an appealing sector in smart buildings. Well, smart buildings will need smart lighting. And so 2011 will be a year in which lighting systems — especially ones using light-emitting diodes, or LEDs — will be on the rise.

Networked lighting’s pitch is energy efficiency, a green strategy that promises return on investment, which is a must when selling to commercial entities. (That’s why, for example, electric vehicles been rolled out sooner and caught on faster among business buyers than consumers.) The basic premise of these lighting systems is that buildings and warehouses can save money by programming lights to automatically dim or shut off based on when the building is in use, as well as other factors, like the amount of sunlight streaming through windows.

Some lighting controls focus on more efficient use of standard fluorescent lights, but solid-state lighting like LEDs could save the U.S. $120 billion between now and 2030 if the technology advances to meet certain price and performance milestones, a February report from the Department of Energy concluded.

Lighting systems companies have been quick to point out the benefits of installing smart lighting. Digital Lumens claims that investing $100,000 into an LED project yields $50,000 a year in electricity and maintenance savings; Lumenergi also says it can produce a 50 percent savings on electricity bills. GreenBeat 2010 Innovation Competition winner Redwood Systems told us that its use of sensors not only reduces lighting costs but offers valuable insight on other inefficiencies in building energy management.

Josh Slobin, marketing director for Daintree Systems, a new entrant into the lighting-controls market, estimates that lighting makes up 40 percent of all building energy use. It has been gearing up wireless sensor-based lighting systems, a market that they decided to get into after recognizing there was “pretty huge chunk” of energy being used the building lightings market.

And Michael D’Amour, CEO of Lumenergi, another lighting-controls player, estimates that lighting accounts for more than 20 percent of all electricity consumed in the U.S. His company says customers for its systems can shave 50 percent off their lighting bills.

Another plus: Lighting systems can be integrated into the smart grid. D’Amour says Lumenergi’s systems can be designed to dim when the cost of electricity is higher and to shut of decorative lighting when the grid is overloaded.

Adura Technologies also uses wireless light switches connected with ZigBee. It uses algorithms to determine how much lighting is needed for environments like parking garages or offices to be comfortably and safely lit; all extraneous lights are cut off. Although there are a number of lighting companies in the field, success boils down to the bottom dollar.

“The key in the end is payback,” says Nat Goldhaber of Claremont Creek Ventures, which backs Adura. “How long does it take to get payback? If payback is over 10 years, you don’t get the deal.”

Still, the less-efficient Edison bulb and fluorescent lights reign in the lighting market, which is why executives like Lumenergi’s D’Amour say lighting controls are more important than LEDs when it comes to energy savings at the moment. But LEDs are set to grow 30 percent next year and earn $1 billion in annual revenue by 2014, according to a recent report by Groom Energy and Greentech Media Research. And lighting system companies like Lunera and Digital Lumens have banked on the LED model, designing their systems using LEDs.

Like lighting controls, LEDs cost more upfront but can save more money in the long run. In the case of LEDs, they last longer and are more energy efficient. The sector was marked by the NASDAQ debut this month of SemiLED, an Asian LED maker. U.S. LED manufacturers like startup Bridgelux are also aiming for a piece of the pie; others players include Cree, Phillips and Lemnis.

[Image via Flickr/roomiccube]

Data centers are used by companies to store Web servers and associated computer equipment. And the behemoth buildings, which typically take up hundreds of thousands of square feet, are huge energy hogs, requiring large amounts to power the equipment, as well as air conditioning to keep the servers from overheating. In 2006, the government reported that data centers consumed 1.5 percent of  all electricity in the U.S., costing $4.5 billion, and projected the energy use could nearly double by 2011, costing $7.4 billion a year.

It’s enough of an issue that the EPA’s Energy Star program has launched a program to certify data center equipment as energy-efficient, as well as underscore best practices.

And investors are taking note of the opportunities. Kevin Skillern, who heads up GE’s energy venture capital investments, thinks the official numbers may be behind the curve. He put the current consumption rate at three to four percent of U.S. energy output a year. That’s one reason why his company has backed green data center startups like SynapSense and JouleX.

Companies like HP, Dell, Yahoo and Google have increasingly turned to greening their data centers. More and more pressure has fallen upon big companies to follow suit, as evidenced by the Facebook imbroglio this fall with Greenpeace over a data center in Oregon that will run on coal-burning power sources. (Facebook recently announced that it would place a green data center in North Carolina.)

The area is already rife for innovation because of inherent inefficiencies. When data centers were first being built, energy was cheap, and not much thought was given to optimizing space or server efficiency, says Simon Mingay, analyst for technology research company Gartner. But “those days are over,” Mingay says.

The lack-of-forethought point is underscored in approach of Nlyte, which makes a data center management tool that can tell operators the best place to put a new set of servers that avoids overheating issues, or predict how much capacity a company will need in the future — right now, most companies deal with that by over-provisioning, which also wastes resources and money, says Nlyte CEO Jon Temple.

“Telling a customer what they’ve got, what’s being used and what isn’t being used — that in itself is 10 percent savings on energy bill,” Temple said. The rather shoot-in-the-dark approach Temple says organizations have taken in the past to data centers means that, on average, 15 percent of the assets in a data center are powered up and consuming energy without actually having anything to do — “other than pushing up your energy bill.”

Other startups like Viridity, Power Assure and Sentilla also take a software-based approach — Earth2Tech notes that Sentilla could have an edge in its ability to identify underutilized servers as well as older equipment that wastes more power. Viridity makes a package called EnergyCenter that models and predicts energy usage for $500 per server rack.

These days, a number of companies have emerged to compete in the greener data center space. Solutions range from the unusual — like GRC’s method of dunking servers in a bath of oil to cool them down — to architectural approaches to what’s called “freecooling,” like Yahoo’s chicken coop-inspired, 155,000-square-foot Computing Coop and HP’s 200,000-square-foot Wynard Center. Both companies located the centers in cool climates, then structured the buildings in a way that brought in chilly winds in to cool down servers, rather than fire up the air conditioning.

Sensors also look like they’ll play an important part in data center efficiency. GreenBeat 2010′s innovation competition winner Redwood Systems uses sensors in networked lighting systems that can reduce data center energy usage — “We can tell if a door has been left open”  just by looking at its data from its sensors, the company’s VP of marketing Jeremy Stieglitz told me, which in turn can be used to generate additional energy savings.

SynapSense uses wireless sensors that feed into a system for data center operators to monitor and adjust heat and load. And JouleX monitors, analyzes and automatically adjusts energy usage of devices in a network to the tune of 30 to 60 percent in energy savings.

Some startups, like Calxeda (formerly Smooth-Stone), aim to tackle the problem at its roots. The company makes chips that will result in servers that suck less energy and take up less space.

Internet and computer titans have taken to investing or partnering with some of these companies. HP, for example, has a technical alliance with Nlyte, and also makes server management software that can cut energy use at peak times. Google has an entire website dedicated to green data center best practices, and in particular emphasizes using recycled water as part of the cooling process. The company notes that two gallons of water is consumed for every kilowatt-hour of electricity produced in the U.S., and has pledged to make recycled water 80 percent of its total data center water consumption by this year.

The varied nature of all the competing solutions in the green data center space says something about the nature of the problem itself — that it’s complicated, a conclusion echoed by Nlyte’s Temple.

“It isn’t going to be one vendor that provides a single silver bullet,” he said. “IT is a complex environment that requires a lot of complexity to manage.”

LED lighting systems installer Redwood Systems announced this morning it

Smart grid semiconductor company Accent announced it has raised $7 million in a second round of fundraising from Tallwood Venture Capital.

Newer cars will be allowed to use higher levels of ethanol in gasoline, the Wall Street Journal reports — as high as 15 percent ethanol for cars made since 2007. The current cutoff is 10 percent. For cars made between 2001 and 2006, the EPA is awaiting more research before issuing a decision. A press conference on the announcement is scheduled for this afternoon.

Steep price competition from Chinese solar companies have forced U.S. companies like MiaSolé, Solyndra and Nanosolar to scramble to retool their approach, the New York Times reports. Chinese solar companies now make up 40 percent of the market in California.

GE is entering the thin-film and CIGS solar market. The company announced that it will make cadmium telluride cells with PrimeStar solar, to be available next year and tailored for utility-scale projects. It has also entered into an agreement with Japanese energy company Solar Frontier to make thin-film solar modules with CIGS technology, named for its ingredients: copper, indium, gallium and selenide.

Are you a green executive or entrepreneur? If so, sign up now for GreenBeat 2010 — the year’s seminal conference on the smart grid — November 3-4 at Stanford University. World leaders in smart grid initiatives will debate how the new “Super Grid” is creating huge opportunities in cars, energy storage, and renewables. GreenBeat 2010 is hosted by VentureBeat and SSE Labs of Stanford University. Go here for full conference details and to apply for the 2010 Innovation Competition. Early-bird tickets are available until October 15th.

Smart grid company Silver Spring is trying to bulk up its strategy in preparation for an eventual (and long-expected) IPO, reports Green Tech Media, citing anonymous sources. The article also notes that major executives have left the company, including former chief product officer Judy Lin, who was recruited last year from Cisco. Last week, Cisco announced big forays into the smart grid market, including a partnership with smart meter-maker Itron and the acquisition of wireless technology startup Arch Rock. Silver Spring likely has its work cut out for it: Cisco’s smart grid efforts could come to rival Silver Spring’s, and the Washington Business Journal speculated last week that GridPoint could beat Silver Spring to the IPO punch.

Time magazine takes a look at the clean energy impact of the Recovery Act, which designates $90 billion of the $787 billion bill to cleantech efforts such as smart meters and solar power – “converting the Energy Department into the world’s largest venture-capital fund.” Without government, there’s no way we would’ve done this in the U.S.,” said Bart Riley, CTO of A123, an MIT startup that makes lithium-ion batteries that supply electric cars. The company has won government grants to open plants in the U.S., and the automotive companies it supplies have benefited from Recovery Act money, too. ”But now you’re going to see the industry reach critical mass here.”

LED maker Obelux has developed “the most powerful LED of all time,” reports CleanTechnica. It has created a high intensity flashing LED that is 20,000 times more powerful than previous technology, and will be used on tall buildings to warn planes flying nearby, particularly in low-visibility conditions. They’ll be available at the start of next year.

Global Solar debuted flexible, lightweight solar modules that can be fitted on the flat rooftops of commercial buildings through glue or be incorporated into the roofing material. The company announced last Tuesday the PowerFlex BIPV modules will cost about the same as traditional, heavier, glass-plated crystalline silicon panels that require installed racking systems.

Waste Management has acquired a majority interest in Garick, an organic lawn and garden product maker that will expand WM’s organics recycling services. Garick brings a million tons of processing capacity, and the company said the collaboration could lead to development of composting and bagging services at their trash facilities. Though WM is a trash company, GigaOm notes that its acquisition and investment strategy rivals that of a high-tech firm like Cisco.

The financing was led by Blackbird Ventures and a firm with an awkward name, (SHW)2 Enterprises, along with a small group of private investors.

We wrote about this company a few months ago, when it raised $1 million in its first round.

The company boasts that its LEDs are brighter, but use less cost per watt and lower power consumption. We asked the company about its technology, and here’s how their public relations person responded:

Quanlight is utilizing a novel compound semiconductor material system to improve the performance of red LEDs (light-emitting diodes). This material, known as a dilute nitride, has properties that are fundamentally superior to the material currently used for red LEDs. Where current LEDs will lose efficiency quickly as the amount of power is increased, Quanlight LEDs will remain very efficient at much higher current loads, resulting in a brighter LED from the same amount of electricity. Also, color shift with changing temperature is greatly reduced using Quanlight LEDs, resolving a problem that hinders the current technology.

Quanlight’s novel material does not require any changes to existing LED manufacturing or packaging technology, allowing for easy adoption into current and future applications. Hence, the lower cost per watt without infrastructure modifications – expected to be better all around.

The company said Harvey White, the co-founder of Qualcomm, has joined as chairman. White runs (SHW)2 Enterprises.

According to company chief executive, Neil Senturia, the financing will be used to take the company from research and development to wafer production.