Shorter days and miserable weather are an annual winter curse across most of Europe, but imitation sunlight could soon be finding its way indoors on the greyest days, during the night, or even into subterranean metro tunnels, thanks to an Italian company that has created a hyper-realistic artificial skylight.
Developed by CoeLux Srl, the skylight uses nanotechnology to reproduce the natural light of the sun in a blue sky, creating an effect that it is indistinguishable from the real thing to the human eye.
It took Professor Paolo Di Trapani, a physicist at the Department of Science and High Technology at the University of Insubria in Como, more than a decade to develop the system, which uses a mix of LED technology, optical illusions and nanostructured materials - materials made up of tiny molecules that are often extremely strong - to create an almost unnervingly realistic impression of natural sunlight.
The technology tricks the brain into thinking it is genuine sunlight, says Professor Di Trapani, because "the difference between the reality and the augmented reality is sufficiently small. It means if you're not aware it's an artificial skylight, you wouldn't realise it. The space is not created by the technology, but by your mind."
The 10-year development has resulted in a scientifically complex product. The LED is able to reproduce the sun's light spectrum and a sophisticated optical system then creates the illusion of a distant sun in a blue sky.
The blue sky is created by a layer of nanostructured materials which scatter the light in such a way that it creates a sky-blue colour. This is a recreation of Rayleigh scattering, where the light from the real sun is scattered by particles in the earth's atmosphere.
However, at £40,000 a panel, with installation costs of up to £5,000, the skylight may not be a common sight for some time.
Professor Di Trapani likens the technology to an elevator, an invention which allowed for the construction of skyscrapers. But he says that CoeLux skylights could help us move down, rather than up.
"It gives you the chance to develop and build new architecture that goes down. You can't always build on top of the landscape, but there is a huge amount of space down below. Already architecture is developing in the underground but in horrible conditions, but that's why CoeLux could be an important development," Professor Di Trapani says.
The panel offers three different types of light, depending on where it is situated. There is a wall mounted one which gives a "warm, grazing light" found in Nordic countries; a Mediterranean ceiling panel giving "equal balance of light and shade"; and a more "tropical" ceiling version with a beam that provides the maximum contrast between light and shadow.
The company says it hopes the artificial sunlight could also be used to treat illnesses such as seasonal affective disorder. Professor Di Trapani says a clinical trial is currently being undertaken in a hospital to assess the effects of CoeLux light, and will be publishing the results in the near future.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Luke is a reporter at Newsweek Europe based in London covering politics, business, science and technology. @HurstWords
