What are your thoughts on the direction of future flashlight tech going forward?

What are your thoughts on what will, could, or should happen in terms of flashlights in the future? Whether it be with respect to the industry in general, or specific trends/features that will be introduced?

Is it going to be like processors in a max lumen race switching to more efficiency switching to miniaturization? Like cameras adding more and more features? Or something else?

I mean currently it seems like in light charging is popping up more and more, as well as modular designs (including attachments). What's next? Wifi or GPS enabled? In light inductive charging? USB configured lights? Adaptive reflectors?

I don't personally think anything revolutionary is in the pipeline with flashlight development at the moment. Most of what we see today is the tweaking of the existing format, styles and user interfaces. However, significantly greater output and radical new designs are in my opinion still fairly limited. However, during the past few years the number of Far Eastern companies offering flashlights built to a similar quality to the well known US brands has multiplied considerably. This competition is in itself interesting as it drives innovation and we all know that innovation means making something better than your competitors. As it stands at the moment the biggest difference between many of the lights available on the market today appears to be price. It remains to be seen if this will encourage US manufacturers to try to compete or if it will eventually reduce the demand for expensive and well made US lights?

Programmable lights are probably the path of future lighs. Take petzl's nao headlamp and armytek's predator lights.

The nao headlamp is programmable and has a built-in sensor that controls the amount of light emitted from the headlamp. That's something I've never seen before.

Armytek's predator series is another technological breakthrough in my opinion. Yes, there are a lot of programmable lights out there, but the predator lets you customize everything even down to its stabilization. Plus, the circuits are doubled and protected.

A flashlight is what it is. People have tried innovating it by sticking radios in them, making them solar powered, etc. but the end product almost always turns out to be mediocre. Probably the only things manufacturers can improve on are aesthetics, programmability, durability and of course, power and runtime.

I suspect that multiple focus features like the Fenix BTxx series with dual-distance beam will become more common - only because there are enough lumens to split between two beam patterns. and notice the slow return of the focusable light. or the "lossless" reflector.

There is a slow migration away from the RCR123 primarily to the 18650 cells as well as to 14500 cells. 18650 because of the available current draw and 14500 to maintain the 4.2v voltage in the ubiquitous AA cell size. eg: Attempting the size and lumens of the SC600 would not be reasonable with RCR123 cells. With drivers that accept the 4.2v of a single cell LiIon, the RCR123 has only a minor size advantage left. and the LD01 with a 10440 provides the lumens in a still smaller package - admittedly not for long.

In the end, how much heat is generated by the LED and driver and how that heat is dissipated will govern the lumen output.

More light from a smaller package, longer runtimes, etc, are expected. To BE a flashlight, the form factor is pretty much locked....but people make breakthoughs that lead to other breakthroughs.

This means that ways to emit the light itself, to project the light, to power the light, durability, adaptability, weight, etc, can be improved. If someone makes a 10k lumen 300k lux light that runs for 3 days on turbo, but you wear it like a ring on your finger...is it a flashlight?

Maybe not.

(I'd want one any way...)

I would like to see more effort put into the single AA lights so that they are sized similar to single CR123 lights, support NiMH and 14500, infinitely variable and with decent throw. ZL has shown that an AA light can be very small and still rock. Time for other manufacturers to catch up and offer better features. I'd love to see some limited Ti runs of these quality AA lights. A quality AA version of the SF T1A or V10R Ti but no bigger in size - I am sure it's possible.

ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond said:

A quality AA version of the SF T1A or V10R Ti but no bigger in size - I am sure it's possible.

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You probably know this already, but there is a Ti AA extender for the V10R Ti. It's gonna be longer than you want, but you're be living on the edge.

I can see programmable lights becoming more numerous. I think the hurdles of this would be to keep it fool proof, which can mean different things to different people.

That's why I thought USB configured lights could happen in that lights already are popping up with USB interfaces in the lights (currently for charging). What's not to say the next step would be to come with a cd with a program to configure your lights to your exact liking via USB? Mode 1 = firefly Mode 2 = X lumens Mode 3 = XX lumens and so on.

Think in terms of computer mice and how they can be configured these days. I play computer games with a "gaming mouse" that can be configured to any game/program and the settings can change on the fly. It wasn't long ago when a mouse was just a button, a ball, and a roller for X and Y.

AFearlessBirdOfParadise said:

You probably know this already, but there is a Ti AA extender for the V10R Ti. It's gonna be longer than you want, but you're be living on the edge.

I can see programmable lights becoming more numerous. I think the hurdles of this would be to keep it fool proof, which can mean different things to different people.

That's why I thought USB configured lights could happen in that lights already are popping up with USB interfaces in the lights (currently for charging). What's not to say the next step would be to come with a cd with a program to configure your lights to your exact liking via USB? Mode 1 = firefly Mode 2 = X lumens Mode 3 = XX lumens and so on.

Think in terms of computer mice and how they can be configured these days. I play computer games with a "gaming mouse" that can be configured to any game/program and the settings can change on the fly. It wasn't long ago when a mouse was just a button, a ball, and a roller for X and Y.

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A CD? The driver and utilities could be stored in the flashlight's onboard memory.

This would be very appealing to me if there would be an SDK and/or source code available.

I'd bet most of the upgrades we see in the next couple years will be more based around the battery. I can see longer run times on current AA and CR123 batteries, but where I think bigger breakthroughs will be in in rechargeable batteries. Both in longer life and number of recharges but in form factor as well, able to be molded etc. Picture a headlamp where instead of a battery pack lump on the headband, the headband is the battery pack.

oKtosiTe said:

A CD? The driver and utilities could be stored in the flashlight's onboard memory.

This would be very appealing to me if there would be an SDK and/or source code available.

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Lol, I actually typed out "driver" instead of CD, but didn't know how many people would get that, so I turned back time a decade.

AFearlessBirdOfParadise said:

USB configured lights

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Wires are so 20th century; a wi-fi interface would simplify things nicely, and since you're already carrying a computer in the form of your cell phone, you could alter the programming as needed or control various parameters of the light in real time.

StarHalo said:

Wires are so 20th century; a wi-fi interface would simplify things nicely, and since you're already carrying a computer in the form of your cell phone, you could alter the programming as needed or control various parameters of the light in real time.

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Okay then how about we go into the future with in light inductive charging? How good are those consumer pads on sale today? A quick Google and I can't seem to find any hard numbers/specs.

Heck, it would be like being the Green Lantern charging up his ring, or I think in a Star Trek episode they used a replicator to charge batteries of an existing device only it would take way longer.

inductive charging? insufficient information, although the idea is interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_(inductive_power_standard)

An inductive charging system is slow to be adopted because the consumer still has to plug something in. Efficiency for large devices is 80-90% relative to what a hard-wire connection provides. The primary advantage is no wear on contacts carrying current. Compatibility between interfaces is just as significant as compatibility between I/F plugs - the notorious Apple plugs are a good example. Apple investigated inductive charging for their iPhones and rejected the idea for now.

Automotive manufacturers like the idea of simply driving a car or bus over a pad and charging the battery. or "power paddles". Tests with a bus indicate some 60% power could be replaced, but the cost of the charging stations and maintenance were excessive. and what happens if some other device is placed on the same surface? unpredictable.

Non-trivially, there is a significant disadvantage regarding electro-magnetic spectrum pollution. Anything wireless has the potential to interact with other devices, leading to unwanted results. Some people are sensitive to higher-powered wireless devices, not just the question of cellular communications. Headaches are a common complaint.

Once upon a time, there was the idea of a solar cell system in orbit that would beam power back to Earth - which was abandoned because of the question of what happens to any living creature that crosses that beam, or the ionization effects of a high power beam.

addendum. I forgot to reference the Apple inductive charging effort for the iPhone:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/27/an...ive-charging-syncing-and-docking-for-iphones/

AFearlessBirdOfParadise said:

Okay then how about we go into the future with in light inductive charging?

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That would be a bit complex for a flashlight; a more elegant solution would be a charging base that you'd set the light in like a holster or scabbard. Metal rings within the body of the light would be the anode/cathode contacts, so it wouldn't matter how you put the light in the base, and the light would still be completely waterproof with no need for a charging jack. Just as easy as an inductive charger, but much simpler.

This all assumes you want to carry a separate device for lighting; I have proposed in the past that an emitter package (emitter, sink, reflector, driver) that's roughly the size of a playing die could be attached to your cell phone and controlled/powered that way. Make the emitter a multi-color-multi-die, then you could play with sliders on your cell display for color output, Kelvin, etc.

Maybe the flashlight could also serve as a projector so you could show pictures or movies stored inside the flashlights' memory on a wall.

Safer battery technology then current rechargeable lithium setups.

I don't have a crystal ball, but my bet is that the rest of the population (non falshaholics) start to pick up on the LED lights. Most people on the street still think that the Mini-Mag is a contender for best flashlight. And that will drive the price down, At some point the lock that Cree has on high end LED's will end and lots of companies will be making 200+ lumen lights bringing the price way down.
My bet is at that point you will see more products with flashlights built into other products, 300lm cell phone flashlight, (bright) lights built into keys. Wearable flashlights, on wrist bands or necklaces. But the big ticket will be affordable led lighting (with the correct color temp) for the home. The company that gets that right at the right price will make a killing. JMHO

But the big ticket will be affordable led lighting (with the correct color temp) for the home. The company that gets that right at the right price will make a killing. JMHO

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I agree, here. I am ready for someone to come out with some affordable high-quality 95+CRI warm white pure-flood LED strips to integrate into a kitchen, above the stove top, on a dimmer switch. Or in a bathroom, above the mirror. Or anywhere! It would be so nice to bathe my home in rich, warm, high-cri, variable-brightness floody light, from very efficient power-sipping LEDs.

I would also like to see some flashlight manufacturer integrate a true "candle mode" into a light, where you can access a mode that makes the light gently flicker randomly, and slowly glow and dim, with continually adjustable brightness. If they can do strobes at different speeds, and S.O.S., would a random flickering mode be that hard?

Anything short of what Scotty had access to, and being able to beam to another time and place will be falling short of lifetime expectation IMO.:santa: