Hello everyone, I'm Kevin, co-owner of LumiMod (Luminous Modifications). Many of you may be familiar with us from the PS IG page. We make and sell glow markers that passively charge and provide immediate identification for gear in failing and low light conditions.
My background is in military law enforcement and nuclear security and one of the things that always frustrated me was searching for a bag, pouch, or piece of kit I needed in the dark. The vast majority of my time was spent in an environment where light discipline was not a major concern, but cabin lights are rarely bright enough and flashlights took away a free hand I usually needed to get at whatever I wanted. That's what our glow markers do, make it easy to find the things you need.
I started making these glow markers in my garage about a year ago. They are made of a highly luminous crystal suspended in a crystal clear epoxy resin. This is not the glow toy of your childhood. These glow much brighter and much much longer. After less than a minute exposure to UV light the strontium aluminate glows for over 10 hours. The glow subsides over time so the illumination it gives off will depend on ambient light conditions. This is to be expected because our eyes adjust based on ambient light conditions. In photopic or daylight conditions the cones in our eyes have adjusted so that to us, only light sources brighter than our environment will appear to glow. Thus our eyes do not perceive the luminescence of our glow markers.
A side note: if you are outside and expose the glow marker to the sun, then step into an artificially lit building, the glow marker will be at its peak brightness and will appear to glow in a bright room. The peak glow subsides quickly and the luminescence passes below our perception level.
This takes us to mesopic vision. This is how we see during sunrise, sunset, dimly lit rooms and city streets at night. This is where our glow markers literally begin to shine. In these types of lighting conditions both the rods and cones are firing but most things begin to blur together into the same color and our cones struggle to see contrast without vibrant colors. Rods however will easily pick up the markers glow against the dimly contrasted environment. Since most of our environment is not sufficiently illuminated the glow marker appears to us as clearly. With mesopic vision, we are still able to see brightly contrasting colors so your safety orange and highlighter yellow objects will still be relatively easy to pick up. But the light is fading and soon it will be dark.
In scotopic vision, the human eye finds it very difficult to perceive colors. If you imagine the difference between the desert in the day and at night the change is striking when you think about it. Our bright yellow sand has become different shades of grey blue and black as our cones struggle to pick up any assemblance of color. The same thing happens to our bright orange and yellow High Vis gear. We can see it, but our ability to distinguish between colors makes distinguishing contrast much more difficult, in turn reducing its utility. At night there isn't enough light for our eyes to pick detail, depth, movement and shape. Our glow markers however, are now at peak efficiency. While the amount of glow, if we were to measure it, would be pitiful in terms of area illumination, our eyes pick up the glow as an obvious point. We can use that to define the world around us.
As our eyes have now adjusted to scotopic vision, we can still see the glow markers even though the last time they were charged under serious light was 6 hours ago. As the glow diminishes its contrasting effects subside as the sun rises bringing us back into mesopic vision but if we were in a dark room the glow would continue to be perceived. Basically the darkest conditions will see the longest glow times.
When I have a glow marker such as our Green Washer, attached to a bag the effects are subtle yet somehow striking. They are attached to all of my bags that get regular use and are easily detached and reapplied to other bags if the need arises. The two colors, Blue and Green, provide a visual indicator of what pouch I'm opening even when I can't tell if my bag is upside down or right side up. For those of you that have worked at night or been camping ever, you know the frustration of searching around blindly slapping around until you think you feel something vaguely familiar. I wish I had these back when I was on patrol. At the very least I would have dropped less F bombs.
Is this a solution for everyone in every environment? No. If you have taken the time to paint all the shiny target indicators and placed electrical tape over the tiny lights on your radio and PEQ 15, then you wouldn't want our glow markers tagging along for this one. If you would probably pull out a flashlight to find something anyway, then our products are for you, we just save you a step.
Our glow markers are being used all over the world by all types of people. We all experience night after all. People have used them to mark door handles, steps, and latches. People wear them on their keys, on their EDC bags, work bags, range bags, 1st line, 2nd line, and 3rd line gear. They are placed in vehicle kits to mark medical equipment, recovery kits, and support gear. We have left them outside in the Texas sun for a year now as trail markers, and there's a few hanging around DARC if you look carefully.
Our glow markers are made in Texas, by me. All of our materials are also 100% US made. That being said, we want our products to be priced reasonably. We want our users to be able to use our markers on all their bags.
At this point in time there are two shapes and two colors.
Washers come in blue and green. They are a 5/8 inch diameter donut with a 1/4 inch hole in the center. Washers are simple add on's for zipper pull cords you already like or other lanyards and ropes.
Spheres also come in blue and green but come with a loop of technora kevlar cordage permanently embedded into it. The cordage is rated for a 200 Lb working load. Do not use this as a load bearing device. Someone would have tried it... It's highly abrasive resistant and heat resistant. The spheres are meant to outlast your bag. You can loop them through the holes in a regular zipper pull tab or cut off the old one and attach it directly to the zipper slider body. The cordage is thin enough to fit through all but the tiniest of zippers.
The most common question is always, where can I get these since Spiritus Systems sold out?
Well, you should see them back in stock Friday as well as other distributors very soon.
You can find us on Instagram @LUMIMOD where we will make most of our announcements and re-stock notifications. Questions and inquiries can also be sent to us at info@lumimodusa.com or here on P&S.
My background is in military law enforcement and nuclear security and one of the things that always frustrated me was searching for a bag, pouch, or piece of kit I needed in the dark. The vast majority of my time was spent in an environment where light discipline was not a major concern, but cabin lights are rarely bright enough and flashlights took away a free hand I usually needed to get at whatever I wanted. That's what our glow markers do, make it easy to find the things you need.
I started making these glow markers in my garage about a year ago. They are made of a highly luminous crystal suspended in a crystal clear epoxy resin. This is not the glow toy of your childhood. These glow much brighter and much much longer. After less than a minute exposure to UV light the strontium aluminate glows for over 10 hours. The glow subsides over time so the illumination it gives off will depend on ambient light conditions. This is to be expected because our eyes adjust based on ambient light conditions. In photopic or daylight conditions the cones in our eyes have adjusted so that to us, only light sources brighter than our environment will appear to glow. Thus our eyes do not perceive the luminescence of our glow markers.
A side note: if you are outside and expose the glow marker to the sun, then step into an artificially lit building, the glow marker will be at its peak brightness and will appear to glow in a bright room. The peak glow subsides quickly and the luminescence passes below our perception level.
This takes us to mesopic vision. This is how we see during sunrise, sunset, dimly lit rooms and city streets at night. This is where our glow markers literally begin to shine. In these types of lighting conditions both the rods and cones are firing but most things begin to blur together into the same color and our cones struggle to see contrast without vibrant colors. Rods however will easily pick up the markers glow against the dimly contrasted environment. Since most of our environment is not sufficiently illuminated the glow marker appears to us as clearly. With mesopic vision, we are still able to see brightly contrasting colors so your safety orange and highlighter yellow objects will still be relatively easy to pick up. But the light is fading and soon it will be dark.
In scotopic vision, the human eye finds it very difficult to perceive colors. If you imagine the difference between the desert in the day and at night the change is striking when you think about it. Our bright yellow sand has become different shades of grey blue and black as our cones struggle to pick up any assemblance of color. The same thing happens to our bright orange and yellow High Vis gear. We can see it, but our ability to distinguish between colors makes distinguishing contrast much more difficult, in turn reducing its utility. At night there isn't enough light for our eyes to pick detail, depth, movement and shape. Our glow markers however, are now at peak efficiency. While the amount of glow, if we were to measure it, would be pitiful in terms of area illumination, our eyes pick up the glow as an obvious point. We can use that to define the world around us.
As our eyes have now adjusted to scotopic vision, we can still see the glow markers even though the last time they were charged under serious light was 6 hours ago. As the glow diminishes its contrasting effects subside as the sun rises bringing us back into mesopic vision but if we were in a dark room the glow would continue to be perceived. Basically the darkest conditions will see the longest glow times.
When I have a glow marker such as our Green Washer, attached to a bag the effects are subtle yet somehow striking. They are attached to all of my bags that get regular use and are easily detached and reapplied to other bags if the need arises. The two colors, Blue and Green, provide a visual indicator of what pouch I'm opening even when I can't tell if my bag is upside down or right side up. For those of you that have worked at night or been camping ever, you know the frustration of searching around blindly slapping around until you think you feel something vaguely familiar. I wish I had these back when I was on patrol. At the very least I would have dropped less F bombs.
Is this a solution for everyone in every environment? No. If you have taken the time to paint all the shiny target indicators and placed electrical tape over the tiny lights on your radio and PEQ 15, then you wouldn't want our glow markers tagging along for this one. If you would probably pull out a flashlight to find something anyway, then our products are for you, we just save you a step.
Our glow markers are being used all over the world by all types of people. We all experience night after all. People have used them to mark door handles, steps, and latches. People wear them on their keys, on their EDC bags, work bags, range bags, 1st line, 2nd line, and 3rd line gear. They are placed in vehicle kits to mark medical equipment, recovery kits, and support gear. We have left them outside in the Texas sun for a year now as trail markers, and there's a few hanging around DARC if you look carefully.
Our glow markers are made in Texas, by me. All of our materials are also 100% US made. That being said, we want our products to be priced reasonably. We want our users to be able to use our markers on all their bags.
At this point in time there are two shapes and two colors.
Washers come in blue and green. They are a 5/8 inch diameter donut with a 1/4 inch hole in the center. Washers are simple add on's for zipper pull cords you already like or other lanyards and ropes.
Spheres also come in blue and green but come with a loop of technora kevlar cordage permanently embedded into it. The cordage is rated for a 200 Lb working load. Do not use this as a load bearing device. Someone would have tried it... It's highly abrasive resistant and heat resistant. The spheres are meant to outlast your bag. You can loop them through the holes in a regular zipper pull tab or cut off the old one and attach it directly to the zipper slider body. The cordage is thin enough to fit through all but the tiniest of zippers.
The most common question is always, where can I get these since Spiritus Systems sold out?
Well, you should see them back in stock Friday as well as other distributors very soon.
You can find us on Instagram @LUMIMOD where we will make most of our announcements and re-stock notifications. Questions and inquiries can also be sent to us at info@lumimodusa.com or here on P&S.
