In my opinion, I really cant see much change happening. I think flashlight technology has either peaked or is close to it. We have gotten to the point where we burn our hand from the heat. So what would be the next step? That we burn our entire arm?
I think we will have a greater variety of LED’s , I think batteries will improve. However these advancements are evolutionary and not revolutionary.
To conquer heat, we would have to have a metal that does not conduct heat at all. Does it exist?
The real areas of improvement would be in an interface. Operating the Andruil interface with one button is equivalent to trying to operate a computer without a monitor. So programming a light from a computer would be a huge step in the right direction.
I don’t know if anyone on this forum is familiar with Baofeng radios. These cost as little as $20 and are programable with a PC interface and a free program. Yes you can still program 500 channels by hand and it would take you a month but with the program it can happen in minutes. This is the technology our lights can use.
1. a power source (battery?) that charges itself by RF signals which reach everywhere.
2. a form factor resembling a paper clip or safety pin and weighs about the same.
3. a cost approaching “give-away” status for anything under 500LM.
Batteries will be getting smaller and more energy dense, so I see a shift towards smaller form factors. Reflectors will gradually be phased out for optics of various kinds, and LEDs will get more efficient with better cd/mm² so you won’t need a big xhp70.2 to efficiently make 5000 lumens and throw far. Drivers are also improving. I think we will see more buck/boost drivers soon.