In the movies or on TV, a room lit by a bare lightbulb is often visual shorthand for poverty and misery, being used by set designers to illuminate fleabag hovels or interrogation rooms. The design limitations of the incandescent bulb means that in domestic settings, it needs to be placed in a lamp with a diffusing shade to cut the harshness.

Now that we've got LED bulbs, designers are starting to play around with the bulb itself in order to better diffuse the light:

Japanese manufacturer Tri Terasu's Smart Chandelier bulbs are cut into little towers dotted by indentations that "catch" light from the LED, each indentation becoming its own miniature light source; the effect is rather like a skyscraper with fully-lit windows. The pleasant effect is sure to throw interrogators off their game.