Fiberoptic cable is widely used in telecommunications, but it can also be used to transmit light for purposes of generating luminosity in a space. And it dawned on me earlier today, that you can use a centralized lighting source for a space, and then transmit that light using fiberoptic cable to different locations in the space. So for example, if you have a few rooms, rather than pump electricity through wiring, you pump light from a central source into the rooms using fiberoptic cable. You can still have bulbs for aesthetics, but the luminosity is generated elsewhere, in a centralized place. To simulate current lighting, you could have a switch in a room that causes the centralized source to increase in luminosity, and cause the related fiberoptic cable to open up, allowing light into the space in question.

The advantages seem significant, because there’s no resistance to light moving through fiberoptic cable, and therefore, no ambient heat. This should save money and electricity. The same is true of the generation of luminescence itself, which is now centralized, meaning you don’t have piping hot bulbs hanging in the space itself, and instead have a concentrated heat source that you can manage, by either placing it outdoors (like a centralized A.C. unit), or otherwise ventilating it. You could be super efficient, and pipe the heat generated back into the space during the winters. You could also supplement the luminosity generated by the unit with natural sunlight during the day, which will change its color, but because you have total freedom with the delivery of the light into the space, you can probably correct for that. Also, natural sunlight looks nice, and it would probably be astonishing to see natural light literally piped into a space.

I thought of this initially as an artistic device, since it would allow for light to be placed anywhere in a space, since fiberoptic cable can be made quite thin. This means that even though you can use bulbs, you don’t need to, and can instead get really creative, using, e.g., treated papers, plastics, metals, etc., since the light is already generated, and now all you’re doing is treating it, and placing it somewhere in a space. This would provide interior designers with real freedom to use light like any other component in a space, placing it at will in any location, with essentially any texture, shape, or color.