Navanshu Agarwal writes that Italian scientists have developed an artificial LED sunlight system that looks just like real daylight streaming through a skylight. The LED skylight uses a thin coating of nanoparticles to recreate the effect that makes the sky blue, known as Rayleigh Scattering that doesn’t just light up a room but produces the texture and feel of sunlight. Paolo Di Trapani, one of the scientists who worked on the device believes that the skylight will allow developers of the future to not just build up, but also far down below the ground- without any of the "dinginess" that currently keeps us above ground.
CoeLux hopes to treat seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. Each year, some 10 million Americans, mostly women, find themselves sinking into a heavy malaise during the wintertime. CoeLux hopes its LED bulbs, which create the illusion of infinitely tall, bright blue skies, will help trick the brains of people with SAD, ridding them of their blues.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday March 05 2015, @07:28AM
Trending away from the $5-10 LED bulb.
I wonder if these could be covered by health insurance.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @07:44AM
Dude, it is nearly $70,000 for just one of them.
This is a 0.1-percenter product. Nobody's insurance is going to cover it.
Cheaper to put in a bunch of light tubes [solatube.com] maybe jerry-rig a parabolic collector around the input sides to increase the light concentration.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday March 05 2015, @08:38AM
For now. In 3 years time after released on the market, the price will drop down like lead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by davester666 on Thursday March 05 2015, @09:04AM
Yes, but the office will buy ones $1 cheaper that will be deemed "close enough", and the windows for the general office staff will be painted over permanently.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @11:11AM
So? Open them enough; run Linux, not windows, and regain your freedom
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Thursday March 05 2015, @11:29AM
You wish! They are gonna have to ask you to go ahead and move your desk downstairs in the storage B... that would be terrific, mmkay? Oh, and they'll take your cherished red Swingline stapler too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @02:35PM
> For now. In 3 years time after released on the market, the price will drop down like lead.
Don't count on it. This story was making the rounds a year ago [ilsole24ore.com] and nothing has changed, they are even still using the same clipart.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Thursday March 05 2015, @07:13PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 06 2015, @02:27AM
> For the time being, there isn't a product on the market yet.
And hasn't been for at least year despite the same exact PR making the rounds back then.
You seem to have a fondness for the idea. I seem to have seen a hundred such pre-market projects that never actually make it to market.
You stick to your optimism. I'll stick to history.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday March 06 2015, @03:22AM
Nope. If was speaking hypotheticals (when the product gets to the market, if ever) - I'm totally indifferent towards the product, no matter the price; plenty of clear sky where I live, some cloudy days are a welcomed change.
Yes, you said it without explicitly qualifying with "I don't think it will ever get to the market" (you only said: "1 year back, it was in the same position", I interpreted it as "lengthy R&D cycle, don't count on dropping prices at the end of it").
(granted, neither I was being precise enough; should have used an "if" to qualify the standalone and more mellow "when")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Interesting) by anubi on Thursday March 05 2015, @07:49AM
might do the same thing?
I have been playing with those 10-Watt LED's so common on AliExpress... warm white and cold white ones.
I have retrofitted some old light fixtures to use LED's by putting both warm white and cold white LED's in an array.
At full brightness, both varieties of LED are ON fullbore.
As I dim, the cold white LED's are the first to go. As they near extinguish, the warm white LED's start seeing the power cut.
Looks remarkably like an incandescent dimming. The color of the light goes yellower as the light dims, until its out.
The trick is in the diffuser. Never let an individual LED be seen. That spoils the whole effect.
I was looking for something that was bright white when I need intense illumination, but would dim down nicely to a homey warm mood light.
I liked the idea of the skylight. I am now thinking of ordering an array of blue LED's just for this purpose.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Informative) by brocksampson on Thursday March 05 2015, @09:51AM
That is actually how the (latest) Philips wake-up light simulates sun rise/set with LEDs.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @02:39PM
Sylvania has their Sunset Effect LED [candlepowerforums.com] that changes the color temperature to the warmer as you dim it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by CRCulver on Thursday March 05 2015, @09:21AM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by brocksampson on Thursday March 05 2015, @09:57AM
That is something different. There are a range of lighting products that try to reproduce the "energizing" effects of natural sunlight (e.g., blue light triggers a wakeful state) for those of us up North. But the panels in this article actually simulate a skylight by putting a bright LED (array?) behind a thin layer that simulates the Rayleigh scattering that gives the sky a blue color. When you look up at one of these panels, your brain perceives the actual sun in the actual sky. It is more about ambiance than light therapy.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by richtopia on Thursday March 05 2015, @03:21PM
It sounds like to me there are two components of seasonal affective disorder: Light intensity (and correct spectrum) along with blue sky.
If that is the case, could I paint the ceiling blue and reflect a normal lamp off of it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @10:01AM
Fighting blue (feelings) with blue (light)? Well, hopefully that's not just a blue-sky idea! ;-)
(Score: 2, Informative) by efudddd on Thursday March 05 2015, @03:37PM
The Youtube video (which seems a bit self-aggrandizing) spends a lot of time emphasizing that the effect is exactly like sunlight. But how could it be, if the LED-based light doesn't provide warmth? Treating SAD aside, I (and every cat I've ever met) like the obvious fact that the sun warms things. I'm sure these lights will have a lot of applications whatever the price point regardless, but hopefully they won't try to market them using the "exactly the same" schtick they're promoting in the video.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @04:35PM
... Its pretty trivial to put some radiant heaters (or servers) in the space between floors to make heat emanate from the ceiling...
Here's a guy who did it with essentially no expertise for pretty cheap.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @04:47PM
Slapping a heater in the ceiling doesn't address the GP's point. With sunlight, the light itself its a heater; surely you've seen pets or other animals bathing in the sun for warmth or felt it yourself. If you focus it with a magnifying glass you can even light stuff on fire. That is what the GP is pointing out, how can it emulate sunlight if there's no heat in the light? Really though, as long as it triggers vitamin D production in humans and animals that should be good enough.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Thursday March 05 2015, @08:31PM
The heat comes from infrared radiation. There's literally no difference between getting hit with visible light radiation and infrared radiation from two separate sources coming from the same general direction versus visible light radiation and infrared radiation coming from the same source ("sunlight"). If I covered your eyes completely, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between heat from "sunlight" and heat from an identically powered heater.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @05:26PM
It is easy to add another part of the spectrum. However nice it may feel for a short while, you generally don't want to feel radiant heat for a long period, especially if you are stuck facing a certain direction (and thus one side is hot and the other cold). Better to just have the air at a comfortable temperature in most situations and let the light be lacking in IR.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @07:54PM
My cats both prefer to lay underneath the heater vent then in the sun.