By Carl Engelking in Discover Magazine
Sunlight is a key factor architects
take into account in their designs, but in most cases, they’re pretty much at
the mercy of Mother Nature to provide it. However a new innovation may be set
to change that.
An Italian company called CoeLux has
developed an LED light that impeccably recreates the appearance of sunlight
— so well that both human brains and cameras can’t tell the difference.
Designers captured the color temperature and intensity of sunlight by
recreating the same natural conditions that exist in Earth’s atmosphere, but on
a nano scale.
Skylights
for Any Room
When we step outside on a sunny day,
the light that reaches us is actually filtered through the carbon dioxide,
oxygen and nitrogen molecules that make up the atmosphere. The excited
molecules scatter the blue light — the smallest wavelength — more
intensely than colors with larger wavelengths. This effect, known as Rayleigh
scattering, is the reason the sky is blue.
Using nanoparticles, CoeLux
designers essentially compressed six miles of Earth’s atmosphere into a few
millimeters to artificially recreate Rayleigh scattering. And rather than a
gas, CoeLux’s light source passes through a solid layer.
The light itself is an LED projector
that emits white light in a spectrum that mimics the sun’s output. A
“sophisticated optical system” (but with few details provided) creates the
sensation of the distance between the sky and the sun.
What results is stunningly close to
looking at the sun through a real skylight (CoeLux even makes a point to assert
its website photos
aren’t doctored in any way). Buyers can even choose from one of three different
types of sunlight: tropical, Mediterranean and Nordic. Each setting is a
different color temperature, and the sun shines through at a different angle.
A
Bright Idea
Access to natural light has been
shown to have myriad health benefits. If CoeLux’s design is
convincing enough, it could be not just a beautiful addition to a room but a
highly practical one too.
CoeLux envisions its lights
appearing in hospitals, windowless offices and basements hundreds of feet below
ground. The lights are also useful for photographers that are looking to shoot
in-studio photos with natural light. The only downside for these lights, right
now at least, is their price: roughly $61,000 plus $7,000 for installation.
As with any technological
innovation, the price will surely come down as production is more streamlined.
In future versions of the their skylight, CoeLux will allow you to toggle the
position of the sun and adjust its color temperature, rather than just
choosing a preset flavor of sunlight.
So, after the apocalypse, when all
of humanity is forced to live in underground dwellings, take heart: There may
still be sunlight to bask in.
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