Effects of sunlight can be reproduced
It will now be possible to sit in a windowless room but feel the sun shining on one’s face thanks to an FP7-funded project. Technology has been developed that recreates the physical and optical effects of natural light indoors by simulating the diffusion and transmission of sunlight through the atmosphere.
By incorporating the latest energy-saving LED technology with a sophisticated optical system using nanostructured materials into a high-tech window system, COELUX has the potential to be a revolutionary innovation for the contemporary lighting and design industry and to boost the wellbeing of citizens in Europe and beyond. This phenomenon has been proven to have a positive impact on comfort and wellbeing experienced in indoor and underground environments.
“With COELUX, you can experience sunny skies anytime, anywhere,” said Professor Paolo Di Trapani, co-ordinator of the project and a physicist at the University of Insubria in Como, Italy. His research has been driven by the desire to recreate natural light for the past 10 years.
“Like trying to describe the scent of a perfume or the colour of a tropical sun, it is difficult to describe COELUX’s uplifting effects due to the perception of infinite space which the technology produces. Indeed, evidence collected in the course of the project has shown that even claustrophobic individuals feel happy and relaxed when exposed to COELUX light despite remaining in a windowless room of a few square metres for a sustained period of time,” added Di Trapani.
COELUX combines three key elements: the latest energy-saving LED technology to reproduce the sunlight spectrum; a sophisticated optical system to create a sensation of distance between the ‘sky’ and the ‘sun’; and nanostructured materials, only a few millimetres thick, to recreate the entire Rayleigh scattering process which occurs in the atmosphere.
