I was going to mention IES, which is the only place I know where the concept of something like a 60 watt bulb is relevant. I think that Carrara 8 supports IES lights. The only thing I have that does is Kerkythea and I've never messed with them. In ref to what Ockham said, I know that some manufacturers of things like textiles, paint or carpet provide bitmaps of their product textures. I don't know if  it would possible/desirable to have materials based on actual realworld surfaces, though obviously they'd be unique to a particular render engine - and for arch/viz that would probably be VRay, SketchUp etc.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken