NEC develops gadgets to convert fluorescent lamps into power outlets

February 17, 2006

http://www.crisscross.com/jp/news/364514

TOKYO — NEC Corp has developed two types of miniature gadgets that convert fluorescent lamps into power outlets, NEC said Thursday. This will pave the way for data emitters and other power-consuming electronics machines to be fixed to the ceilings in stations and shopping centers without having to conduct costly electrical wiring work, the company said.

One of the two gadgets — a ring-shaped component around the lamp — generates electricity by converting faint pulses of electromagnetic energy radiated by fluorescent lamps into electric currents. The other — a thin round plate-shaped component at either one of the two metal ends of a fluorescent lamp — siphons off part of the usual electricity that is supplied to the lamp to make it fluorescent.