The future is happening all around us,and while it will be filled hopefully with flying cars and robot servants,it will also be filled with people.Lots and lots of people-according to demographic experts,some ten billion of them by 2050.And they are all going to need somewhere to live,something to eat and a cool foil spacesuit to wear around town.
And while current residents of the boring old present day live in cramped apartments,flats and homes,so the planet is running rapidly out of agricultural space to grow crops-which is why vertical farming is a thing.
Vertical farming-the practice of growing crops indoors,in tall buildings,beneath artificial light-is certainly a solution,but so far the costs of photosynthesising light beneath artificial lighting are being dominated by the energy used to run them.
The solution?According to graduate student Erico Rolim de Mattos of the University of Georgia,a clever combination of LED light bulbs and a computer array to control it.
"It is like the plants and lights are talking,"he says.
And as a result of Mattos'idea,the young Sao Paulo native has won a$30,000(£19,000)scholarship to the Singularity University to help him develop the idea into something practical and commercially viable.
The university is running a ten-week summer project to help develop the ideas of the future,including Mr Mattos',as part of ongoing work to help provide solutions to problems such as feeding the planet's population,maintaining the water quality worldwide and keeping people safe.
And while outdoor wall lights won't solve any impending food crises in your garden,they can provide illumination for those long,lazy summer nights without impacting too heavily on your fuel bill.
Walkover lights can sense when there is movement in your outdoor space and only turn on as necessary,which helps to cut costs-while low voltage garden lights will hum along nicely on a fraction of the juice that traditional garden lamps require.
