It’s things like this that make me feel like we’re really in “the future” we were promised.  A Welsh company named Lomox has developed wallpaper that emits light using half the energy of a CFL and 1/9th the energy of a traditional lightbulb.  The technology is called OLED lighting (Organic Light Emitting Diodes), and they are essentially just materials that emit light when current is passed through them.  They are free from mercury (found in CFL’s), flexible, thin, and endlessly useful for both design and efficiency.

The uses for OLED up until now have been largly experimental and design oriented.  PolyPhotonix made a dress out of the stuff, designers make sculptural lamps, and now Lomox makes wallpaper.  The fruits of this experimentation however have larger implications.  The OLED technology can be used in televisions, windows, and large-scale lighting projects.

A few days ago The Carbon-Trust, a government funded nonprofit in the UK awarded Lomox $720,000 to develop OLED lighting like the wallpaper you see here.  The products should be on the market by 2012.  Many think that OLED technology is the future of lighting.  While light-emitting wallpaper is no match for windows in your house, it’s a neat way to save energy and have cool wall art.  Both beautiful and green!