Part 7: The day the LED approaches the sun

Effects of sunlight on life

Sunlight has many positive effects on the human body and mind.
You probably know that sunlight promotes the production of vitamin D, which helps maintain bone health.
Sunlight also regulates our sleep and wakefulness rhythms and adjusts our body clock.
Exposure to bright natural light in the morning helps you wake up more easily and improves your concentration.

Additionally, sunlight has a huge impact on our emotional and mental health.
Spending time in the sun can reduce stress and help you relax.

However, it is undeniable that in modern life we tend to stay indoors, and our opportunities to get sunlight are decreasing.
As the extreme heat continues, people tend to avoid sunbathing due to the fear of heatstroke and the negative effects of ultraviolet rays.

However, a moderate amount of sunlight is essential to our lives and has a great impact on our mental and physical health.
By taking in sunlight, your body will be in good condition and your mind will be more stable.

Benefits of reproducing sunlight

Reproducing sunlight has many benefits in our environment.
Typical benefits include improved visual comfort, psychological effects, and improved concentration.

[Improved visual comfort]

Sunlight in the morning and evening has a low color temperature and brings a comfortable warmth.
Also, getting enough sunlight during the day can lead to a healthier life and improved visual comfort.
Sunlight can be said to be a valuable resource that should be used to make our lives brighter and more comfortable.

[Psychological impact]

Sunlight also has a great impact on our psychological health.
Exposure to sunlight is said to have the effect of uplifting your mood and reducing stress.

Sunlight stimulates the secretion of a neurotransmitter called serotonin in the brain, leading to a feeling of happiness and relaxation.
Additionally, sunlight can be effective in improving a mental condition called seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
SAD is a form of depression caused by lack of sunlight in winter, and solar therapy is considered an effective treatment.

Sunlight has the power to brighten our hearts and improve our psychological health.

[Improvement of concentration]

Various studies have shown that sunlight promotes brain activation and improves attention and cognitive function.
Exposure to sunlight is said to reduce drowsiness and fatigue, allowing you to concentrate for longer periods of time.

Sunlight also has stress-reducing effects.
Stress is one of the factors that reduces concentration and attention, but exposure to sunlight has a relaxing effect and helps relieve stress.
For this reason, many nursing homes and care facilities recommend sunbathing.

Sunlight provides a variety of benefits in our lives, including improved comfort, psychological well-being, and performance.
Therefore, with the latest LED technology and advances in lighting design, sunlight reproduction is becoming more effective.
By incorporating natural light into our environment, we can lead a richer and more fulfilling life.

Applications and benefits of sunlight reproduction LED

Sunlight plays an important role in our lives, but it has been difficult to fully reproduce sunlight in indoor environments.
However, advances in LED technology have made it possible to realize lighting environments developed to mimic sunlight.

Sunlight-reproducing LEDs produce light that emits a spectrum close to that of sunlight by adjusting the color temperature and color rendering index (CRI).
This has made it possible to create a more natural and comfortable indoor lighting environment.

There are various applications for sunlight-reproducing LEDs.
First, it contributes to improved comfort and productivity in homes and office spaces.
Natural light-like color temperature and high CRI can reduce eye fatigue and improve work efficiency.

For example, the solar lighting "CoeLux" was developed by Italian high-tech company CoeLux Srl by combining nanotechnology and LED.
It is a mechanism that physically reproduces optical atmospheric phenomena, and is literally creating sunlight itself artificially.

Artificial light that imitates natural blue skies and transparent sunlight due to atmospheric diffusion is said to be so faithfully reproduced that our brains mistake it for sunlight.

LEDs are also used in growing plants and adjusting human biological rhythms.
Plants require specific wavelengths of sunlight, and our body clocks are also influenced by natural light cycles.
Natural light-reproducing LEDs play a role in promoting plant growth and improving human health and comfort by emitting appropriate wavelengths.

Sunlight is an essential element in our lives.
By applying sunlight-reproducing LEDs, we are now able to create a natural lighting environment indoors that is close to sunlight.
It has many benefits, such as increasing comfort and productivity, promoting plant growth, and regulating human health and biological rhythms.

For the spread of sunlight-reproducing LEDs, technological evolution and public awareness are essential.
Today's LED manufacturers are working to develop higher quality sunlight-reproducing LEDs.

Technical issues and countermeasures for solar light reproduction LEDs

Although sunlight-reproducing LEDs are a promising technology for providing a comfortable lighting environment, they face several technical challenges.
Below is a summary of those challenges and ways to overcome them.

[Spectral uniformity]

Spectral uniformity is an important issue.
Sunlight contains many wavelengths, from ultraviolet to infrared, but traditional light source technology is limited to specific wavelengths.
Natural light has a wide spectrum of wavelengths, which cannot be perfectly reproduced by a single wavelength of an LED.

As a way to overcome this problem, methods are being considered to combine multiple light sources and filters to cover many wavelengths.
In addition, methods are being explored to achieve a more natural spectrum, such as by combining multiple LED chips and phosphors.

[Light diffusion and uniform light distribution]

In order to create light similar to sunlight, light diffusion and uniform light distribution are required, but technology is currently being developed to achieve uniform light distribution by improving optical design and reflective materials. Masu.

[Cost and efficiency]

Cost and efficiency are the technical challenges.
Reproducing sunlight requires high energy efficiency, but current technology still has room for improvement.
Additionally, developing high-quality sunlight-reproducing lighting can be expensive.
To address these challenges, efforts must be made to develop efficient light sources and manufacturing processes.

The Earth takes one year to go around the sun, and the Earth itself takes 24 hours to go around the sun.
Therefore, the light continues to change.
Of course, it is also affected by clouds and atmospheric conditions. In order to reproduce this, it is also a challenge to reproduce variations due to time and weather.
Smart control systems and sensor technology must be used to adjust the color temperature and brightness of the light.

Perfectly reproducing the sunlight spectrum is one of the biggest technical challenges in lighting technology.
Researchers and technical experts are developing new materials, improving optical technology, making light sources more efficient, and innovating control systems.

Applications of AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning have been attracting particular attention recently.
Research is underway into ways to reproduce the spectrum and characteristics of sunlight in real time using data analysis and predictive models.

On the other hand, it is also important to establish international standards and standards for the reproduction of sunlight.
By establishing uniform evaluation criteria and indicators for sunlight reproduction, it will be easier to compare and select different lighting systems and products.

Although perfect reproduction of the sunlight spectrum has not yet been achieved, advances in technology are gradually bringing it closer.
Researchers and industry are working hard to create lighting technologies that provide a more natural light environment and contribute to comfort and health.
I look forward to future progress.




Written by: BARREL Editorial Department
Supervised by: Yuki Oe (Lecturer, Department of Lifestyle Design, Faculty of Human Culture, University of Shiga Prefecture)
Lecturer at the University of Shiga Prefecture, Faculty of Human Culture (Department of Lifestyle Design).
She specializes in architectural environments, light environments, lighting environments, and color environments.
She is a member of the Architectural Institute of Japan/Illumination Institute of Japan.
After completing her doctoral course at Nara Women's University Graduate School of Humanities, she worked in technology planning at Sharp.
She worked as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Tokyo University of Science and as a part-time lecturer at Osaka Jonan Women's Junior College before reaching her current position.