LED carpets could banish boring floors for good
Philips' glowing Luminous carpets look set to add some funk beneath your footsteps UPDATE: We get our feet on one in Eindhoven
Philips has teamed up with flooring manufacturer Desso to create LED-laced Luminous carpets and we’ve just had our feet on one in Eindhoven.
The light transmissive carpets developed by Desso can be programmed via an app to display warnings, directions, messages and, well, presumably anything you want.
Once the message or graphic has been displayed, the LEDs disappear and even to Stuff’s trained eye, it looks like any other carpet. The Philips demo showed two messages scrolling upwards in white LEDs but, this being Philips, coloured LEDs are available too.
Examples of uses for the Luminous range from airport floors, which direct passengers to their luggage, to emergency situations in which the directions to the exits are clearly displayed.
Walking on sunshine
The carpets aren’t thicker than usual – they are 6mm thick, an industry standard, but there is an extra 12mm under the strip of LED lights. And in case you’re wondering, Desso says the LED carpets are protected against spilled drinks.
Desso and Philips launched the Luminous carpets in the UK and the Netherlands in June, after a debut at Venice’s architect Biennale, and they are already been used to replace emergency exit signs.
The cost, of course, depends on the number of LED strips and carpet needed but we’re guessing Luminous doesn’t come cheap. Either way, we’ll be kicking every boring old sign we come across from now on.
Sophie Charara
Stuff contributor 
