NEC Corp has developed two types of miniature gadgets that convert fluorescent lamps into power outlets. It’s the first step towards producing 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.

Image from Dan Flavin’s retrospective at the Hayward Gallery

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.

Via Crisscross Japan and Kyodo news.

Related: Talking lights.