Until recently, the lighting in our environments was provided by individual lamps that were either on or off. Developments in LED technology now allow us to control the intensity and color of multiple interconnected light sources. This creates opportunities for lighting to better serve the needs of users. Traditional on-off buttons or dimers will therefore no longer suffice. Serge Offermans and Remco Magielse have developed a new modular wireless lighting and control system in which different interfaces can be used simultaneously to control the lighting to open up the opportunities of modern light sources.
One of the controls is a wall-mounted light-pad that reacts to touch. This LightPad allows people to quickly adjust the overall lighting through an expressive touch. A hard punch provides immediate, functional bright lighting, whereas a gentle storke results in dimmed cozy lighting.
The LightCube allows users to choose between various lighting-presets that are related to different activities by rotating the cube. Every side of the cube represents a preset; after rotating the cube, the top-facing preset will be activated.
Using the LightApp on a tablet or smartphone, users can control many light sources in great detail using simple gestures such as dragging, pinching, rotating and wiping. Which allows people to create settings that can for instance be stored as presets in the LightCube.
The designers installed even the earliest prototypes in real offices. “We learned so much from the users. After every adjustment or addition, we carried out new tests.” Using the newly gained insights we have improved on the implementation and used it to build on the underlying knowledge.
Photo by Jeroen Peerwolte
Photo by Bart van Overbeeke fotografie
Partners
Intelligent Lighting Institute
Eindhoven University of Technology
Philips Research
TiasNimbas Business School
Y’All Solutions
Inertia Technologies
People
Eindhoven University of Technology: ir. Serge Offermans, PhD candidate;
ir. Remco Magielse, PhD candidate;
dr. ir. Harm van Essen, supervisor;
dr. ir. Joep Frens, supervisor;
prof. dr. ir. Berry Eggen, promoter;
prof. dr. ir. Caroline Hummels, promoter
Contact and Information
Serge Offermans
s.a.m.offermans@tue.nl
Remco Magielse
r.magielse@tue.nl