Casambi, the pioneer in wireless lighting controls based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), has teamed up with LED technology specialist Seoul Semiconductor to provide lighting designers with precision control of LED lights that match the spectrum of sunlight. The development puts true human-centric lighting in the hands of designers for the first time.
Casambi’s wireless control technology can now be used with Seoul Semiconductor’s innovative SunLike Series LEDs – the first LED light source to closely match the spectrum of sunlight.
‘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.’
Seoul Semiconductor will be demonstrating what Casambi can do with its Sunlike Series products at darc room held in London from 18 to 22 September 2019.
Notes for editors
The University of Basel study: Cajochen, C., Freyburger, M., Basishvili, T., Garbazza, C., Rudzik, F., Renz, C., … Weibel, J. (2019). Effect of daylight LED on visual comfort, melatonin, mood, waking performance and sleep. Lighting Research & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477153519828419
More detail on the Mount Sinai study:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190527005028/en/
Seoul Semiconductor’s SunLike Series LEDs were co-developed through the combination of Seoul Semiconductor’s optical semiconductor technology and Toshiba Materials’ TRI-R technology.
About Casambi
Founded in 2011, Casambi’s wireless lighting control software platform empowers users of smart devices to interact effortlessly with modern lighting around them. Based on Bluetooth Low Energy, the award-winning Casambi solution delivers a dynamic user experience, exceptional reliability and unrivalled performance. From basic, individual lighting-fixture controls to industrial-scale solutions with cloud-based remote control, monitoring and data logging, Casambi’s technology can be easily integrated at low cost into lighting fixtures, drivers and modules. Additionally, installations can gain advanced lighting control functionality with minimal hardware and deployment outlay. Casambi develops its products in Finland and has a growing sales and support service across Europe, North America and Asia. For more information, visit www.casambi.com.
About Seoul Semiconductor
Seoul Semiconductor develops and commercializes LEDs for automotive, general illumination, specialty lighting and backlighting markets. As the second largest LED manufacturer globally excluding the captive market, Seoul Semiconductor holds more than 14,000 patents, offers a wide range of technologies, and mass produces innovative LED products such as SunLike – delivering the world’s best light quality in a next generation LED enabling human-centric lighting optimized for circadian rhythms; WICOP – a simpler structured package-free LED which provides market leading color uniformity and cost savings at the fixture level, providing high lumen density and design flexibility; NanoDriver Series – the world’s smallest 24W DC LED drivers; Acrich, the world’s first high-voltage AC-driven LED technology developed in 2005, including all AC LED-related technologies from chip to module and circuit fabrication. For more information, please visit www.seoulsemicon.com