I set something similar to this (didn't to be blue light scattering) for a friend who suffered from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) but had to stay living in Washington state for job reasons. They already had a basement with two sky lights and we used Cree 95 CRI LED stripss with a "2d parabola" (they were re-purposed from a concentrated solar project). It didn't do the 'sun at a distance' effect either, but the light quality was enough to get them through the winter while staying productive.
Building an artificial sun that looks realistic [video]
41–50 of 129 posts
Re: Building an artificial sun that looks realistic [video]
#42Re: Building an artificial sun that looks realistic [video]
#43Could indoor or outdoor artificial sun products soon be 'better than sun' (for humans)? e.g. has the hormone regulation & vit d synthesis benefits, without the skin damage? Because it seems like we're getting there: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170913193101.h...
Just take vitamin d.
The reason that people are deficient is because they don't take enough - the US RDA was shown to be 10x too low, due to an arithmetic error in an ancient paper.
Re: Building an artificial sun that looks realistic [video]
#44Couldn't this potentially dangerously amplify ambient RF if you follow the author's advice of re-using an antenna dish & covering it with a non-conductive reflective vinyl coating?
Re: Building an artificial sun that looks realistic [video]
#45Seems like this idea could scale very well with more LEDs of lower wattage, like a local dimming array in TVs. That way 1. heat would be more evenly distributed reducing the need for large heatsinks 2. smaller fresnel lenses could be positioned much closer to the light reducing thickness 3. with a lot of LEDs there'd be a less noticeable grid at the edges of each fresnel lens from chromatic aberration. I'd totally bu…
Do they make "directional" or "angled" Fresnel lenses?
Because you also really want the light to come out of the vertical window at something like a 45° angle downwards.
The physics of it should be fine, I've just never heard of them being manufactured.
And then just add a translucent blue diffusing layer on top.
It seems highly commercializable.
Re: Building an artificial sun that looks realistic [video]
#46I'm curious if the lack of heat in the lightrays will ruin the immersion of sunlight? Perhaps couple this with an IR heatlamp to add the real feel of sunrays hitting your skin?
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Re: Building an artificial sun that looks realistic [video]
#47In a sci-fi future where people are making long journeys on spaceships I can imagine rooms decked out with these to mimic a natural day/night cycle and outdoor spaces. I remember first seeing lights like these a couple years back before from CoeLux ( https://www.coelux.com ), iirc theirs are very expensive though. Awesome that this guy managed to DIY one!
I looked into it for a client's commercial building. $40k each for parts only.
I had a room in an apartment that had no sunlight, and was lusting after CoeLux after it launched. Almost goes without saying, but the first to manufacture an affordable solution at scale would make a ludicrous amount of money, especially with much of the world in lockdown.
Low dose UV light would also be a good addition.
Re: Building an artificial sun that looks realistic [video]
#48Couldn't this potentially dangerously amplify ambient RF if you follow the author's advice of re-using an antenna dish & covering it with a non-conductive reflective vinyl coating?
The focal point of any such amplification would be where the LED is mounted...so I think it would be a non-issue
Re: Building an artificial sun that looks realistic [video]
#49... that looks realistic to a digital camera that doesn't record with high dynamic range?
Re: Building an artificial sun that looks realistic [video]
#50Couldn't this potentially dangerously amplify ambient RF if you follow the author's advice of re-using an antenna dish & covering it with a non-conductive reflective vinyl coating?
It certainly won’t amplify anything since the only powered component is the LED.
It might concentrate RF at the focus to some degree, but only if you put your head right at the focus, and even then it’s almost certainly orders of magnitude less exposure than using a cell phone.