German LED technology sends "blue sky and white clouds" to the office

Working under blue sky and white clouds is the yearning of many office employees. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Labor Management and Organization (IAO) in Germany collaborated with an LED technology company to develop a special roof light source. The light source simulates the natural state of the wind moving through the clouds and changing light, which creates a feeling of working under the vast sky.

The new light source layer consists of 50 50-cm ceramic tiles covering the entire roof. Each tile has 288 LED lights on the circuit board, and the circuit board is fixed on the roof. Sub-white diffuser film is placed 30 cm below the LED light, making the surface even and bright, and no light spots are visible. To obtain the desired spectrum, the researchers used red, blue, green, and white LEDs that combined to produce more than 16 million light colors. In addition, white LEDs consume less power and are more energy efficient than color.

The focus of the development of the virtual sky is to reproduce the cloudy weather. For this reason, the researchers studied natural light, mastered the changing modes and speeds of the spectrum when clouds were moving, and then used LEDs to simulate dynamics. Researchers are committed to having enough light changes to promote indoor workers' clear-headedness without making them feel light changes directly and avoid distracting their work.

The technical team did preliminary research: let 10 volunteers work for 4 days under 30X60 cm roof light: static light on the first day, slowly changing light on the second day, faster speed on the third day, and volunteering on the fourth day. In the end, the 8 people chose the light to change quickly. The survey results show that users feel comfortable with dynamic lighting.

At present, researchers have completed a 34-square-meter "virtual sky" prototype with a total of 34560 LED lamps. At full power, the “sky” light is as high as 3000 lux, and practical use of 500-1000 lux is sufficient. According to reports, this technology will be exhibited at the Hannover Information Technology Expo (March 2012).