In order to improve work quality, Dawn Hollingsworth, principal lighting designer of Visual Terrain, Inc., has installed a portable, battery operated "Taplight" in an otherwise dark office supply cabinet. "It was hard to see envelopes on the bottom of the cabinet." Dawn stated. "I was fed up." The light was installed in a matter of minutes with black velcro, and careful attention was paid to ensure that it was centered on the left door.

"Look how that light is centered in the door." commented Francis Mempin, office manager at Visual Terrain, Inc. "You couldn't get more centered if you tried."

"We did consider using an alternative source," Dawn continued "such as LEDs or Light Pipe product, but given the size of the supply cabinet, and the difficult [mounting] location, our research pointed us to the newest in 'Tap' technology."

"I was surprised that the manufacturer didn't have photometric information available online." Commented Principal Designer Brad Hutchinson, pointing to the finished ray-traced rendering of the supply cabinet. "We had to generate our own rough photometrics to finish the point-by-point analysis. From there, the ray-traced rendering was easy."

"Well, it is more like a nudge-light," added Jeremy Windle, Associate Lighting Designer, also the staff controls engineer.

"The operator interface is rather important, and though the light doesn't respond well to an actual tap, there is a nice 'click' when you nudge it to turn on. Because the luminaire runs on batteries, it is important to ensure that it is 'tapped off' when not in use. We're working with dimming and controls manufacturers to try to incorporate this product with a building-wide control system. Or a Clapper. We're not sure which way the market will drive this development."

A Taplight has since been installed in a dark kitchen cabinet, and additional feasability studies are currently underway to determine addional mounting locations.