Quite an interesting topic. What would be a good software setup in order to measure LED characteristics (or at least compare them)? I'd like to compare different lights' output power and spectrum using a simple phone camera.
Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
111–120 of 294 posts
Re: Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
#112> Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company Such a thing already exists. Its called a lighting design company. People need to admit that lighting (like cryptography) is hard, and that if you're serious about "doing it right" you need to bring in a suitably skilled professional. Each house/apartment is different and every room within it is different, you'll never be able to magically buy good lighti…
There are loads of products on the market that are intended to deliver short bursts of light to you. Usually they are marketed under the name "bright light" or "daylight" lamp. The point with light is that the intensity drops quadratic with distance. So, most of these solutions are intended to be used close to your face. The further away they are from you, the more energy you need. So, a wall or ceiling mounted solution is more costly.
I used to live in Finland where the winters are dark and long and lots of my colleagues had these in their offices. The first time I saw one (a Philipps bright light), I thought it was some kind of fancy new Apple device I did not know yet. Until they turned it on. Highly effective apparently in countering winter depression, which is a common thing that far North.
Basically you use them for 30 minutes or so in the morning. You actually need to be careful with this as you can damage your eyes. I checked on Amazon and you can get loads of different products in this category for under 50 euro or pay a premium for something bigger/fancier. E.g. Beurer has an ipad sized 10K lux solution: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/daylight-simulation-intensity-dis.... I can't vouch for any of these products since I don't need or use them though.
Personally, I prefer to just take a walk when my calendar permits. It's good for multiple reasons and also re-energizes me while lowering stress. Just a 45 minute stroll does wonders; I do longer walks when time permits as well. I live in Germany these days so, it's less dark in the winter here and it did not really affect me that much even when I was living in Finland. I noticed my colleagues from further south were suffering a lot more; or at least moaning more about it.
Re: Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since the OP is quite courageous about claiming someone "inventing" this in 2017, I'd like to highlight your prior art: > Been using one of those in my office for the last eight years or so. I use a server PSU for power. And as you mention, articles on it have been circulating for even longer.
Yudkowsky says he and his wife did it in 2014, so it sounds as if it was actually pretty much at the same time as said prior art. (Also, they were specifically doing it as a treatment for SAD ; I don't think Yudkowsky claims novelty for anything other than the idea that SAD might be effectively treated by having very bright indoor lighting all the time rather than e.g. a lightbox that you sit next to for half an hour…
The Paris hotel in Las Vegas has had this for at least 20 years. When you're inside at 3am it feels like daytime. I think the idea is to keep you awake and gambling at all times.
Re: Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
#114If you ever wondered what makes LED lights feel great: it's the strategic mixing of LEDs with different characteristics. Here's a free tool that helps designing such fixtures: https://www.meerkatblog.com/ledmixing
I'm confused - most LED will not make you feel great (unlike incandescent light) - on the contrary, you have to put in a lot of effort to get decent light from LEDs.
There is a little to no consumer market for quality stuff (ppl buy based on price, maybe lm/W, maybe CRI95+).
You'll see great LED installations at:
- offices & commercial buildings, where it was designed by an engineer
- medical, where identifying things like skin-tone is critical
- transportation (often street lights), where it's optimised for night-time contrast
Re: Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
#115I live in Sweden (country with severe darkness) and just bought two Virtual Sun united from https://innerscene.com/ NOTE: Be extremely careful when transporting/moving these units, they easily break. The supplier who imported them on my behalf got two shipments with broken units until they finally got one that wasn't damaged. This happened despite FRAGILE markings on the packaging. Innerscene's Virtual Sun is much sm…
What's the pricing for these? Looks interesting.
Re: Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
This kind of utter gibberish is exactly why people don't take LessWrong seriously.
“Ideas can be harmful” is gibberish?
The amount of self-importance on display is what makes it sound like gibberish.
A: "I have the most ground-breaking idea ever!"
B: "Okay, let's hear it?"
A: "No, it's too dangerous, it may well destroy the world, but trust
me it's brilliant and completely novel."
Re: Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
#117I wonder what one gains by using super bright lights. The pupil will adjust to counter the effects of lighting. Adding more lux just makes your pupil smaller. Or am I missing something? Maybe its non linear? Or maybe the idea is to reach the minimal pupil diameter? Or maybe happiness is somehow dependent on pupil diameter?
On a sunny day, your pupil also adjusts to the effects of lighting. And yet, people tend to enjoy a sunny day just from the sight. This is attempting to replicate that.
I wonder how important the infrared heat is to the "sight" of a sunny day.
Re: Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
#118I live in Sweden (country with severe darkness) and just bought two Virtual Sun united from https://innerscene.com/ NOTE: Be extremely careful when transporting/moving these units, they easily break. The supplier who imported them on my behalf got two shipments with broken units until they finally got one that wasn't damaged. This happened despite FRAGILE markings on the packaging. Innerscene's Virtual Sun is much sm…
What's the pricing for these? Looks interesting.
Back in 2021-10-06 when I bought mines, they were crazy expensive!
I paid 89239 SEK (~9349 USD) +25% VAT = 111549 SEK (~11685 USD) per unit.
Not sure about the VAT rate if buying from US.
Hopefully they have reduced the prices since then, not sure.
Re: Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
#119I have done something like this myself. I did the simpler thing of simply buying a single 150W high lumen high lux LED bulb. It's very bright. It's maybe an 70% solution.
Re: Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since the OP is quite courageous about claiming someone "inventing" this in 2017, I'd like to highlight your prior art: > Been using one of those in my office for the last eight years or so. I use a server PSU for power. And as you mention, articles on it have been circulating for even longer.
Yudkowsky says he and his wife did it in 2014, so it sounds as if it was actually pretty much at the same time as said prior art. (Also, they were specifically doing it as a treatment for SAD ; I don't think Yudkowsky claims novelty for anything other than the idea that SAD might be effectively treated by having very bright indoor lighting all the time rather than e.g. a lightbox that you sit next to for half an hour…
[deleted]