Putting human-centric lighting in the hands of the lighting community

‘Human-centric lighting’ describes lighting that is designed to work with the human body’s natural rhythms. It relies on the well-established fact that the human eye detects the presence of a particular wavelength of blue light in the spectrum that makes up sunlight, and uses this to judge what time of day it is. In this way, light helps regulate our sleep-wake cycles and other bodily rhythms, and has a significant impact on our mood and wellbeing.

Human-centric lighting harnesses this effect by adjusting its brightness and colour temperature during the day to mimic natural light. But not all so-called human-centric solutions are the same. Even if they look the same to the eye, different white light sources contain different amounts of the crucial blue wavelength that triggers the body’s response. Most solutions described as human-centric do not have a spectrum that resembles that of real sunlight, so they end up providing too much or too little blue.

Seoul Semiconductor’s SunLike Series LEDs are different. They are the first LEDs to be closely matched to real sunlight, so they provide a similar biological stimulus.

This was confirmed in a recent study by Dr Octavio L. Perez, adjunct researcher in integrative lighting at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. The study, due to be published soon, looked at the non-visual effects of light on the body, and found that the SunLike Series LEDs provide up to 21% more stimulus than conventional LEDs at a colour temperature of 4000K, and the same stimulus as daylight at 6500K.

Another study by scientists at the University of Basel in Switzerland found that LED lights with a spectrum close to sunlight could have a very different effect on human circadian rhythms to conventional LEDs, with beneficial effects on health and wellbeing. Professor Christian Cajochen and his team found that people who spent time under LED lights with a spectrum close to sunlight were more comfortable, more alert, had better moods and slept better, compared to those who spent time under conventional LED lights.

Together, Casambi and Seoul Semiconductor now provide lighting designers the lighting community with all the tools needed to puts this science into practice and create truly human-centric solutions. Designers Users can use Casambi’s Bluetooth-based wireless control system and app with products containing SunLike Series LEDs to precisely adjust the level of light, in the knowledge that the spectrum reflects real sunlight.

Casambi allows lights to be controlled by a timer, or by a huge variety of presence/motion sensors and ambient daylight detection sensors. It can control luminaires that shift in colour temperature over a very wide range, and designers have the freedom to configure dimming, and create scenes or animations to suit the particular application.

Timo Pakkala, Co-founder of Casambi, commented: "Casambi’s partnership with Seoul Semiconductor puts power into the hands of the lighting designer, who can use their expertise to decide how to customise the lighting to the needs of the particular application and the users of the space, and plan an effective human-centric solution based on the latest science."