Collaborative LESA Research Receives Highlights

September 7, 2017 - CHTM

Photonics Media's LIGHT MATTERS has recently highlighted Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Smart Lighting conference room testbed. You can find the most recent episode of Light Matters here.

UNM partners with RPI to conduct research for the next generation of lighting systems and their applications, or “Smart Lighting Systems that See and Think™.” UNM's installation is a clone of the existing smart lighting test bed that is featured in the video. Researchers at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and the Smart Lighting Research Center (ERC) at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) collaborated on the project. (The Smart Lighting ERC has since been rebranded as Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications— LESA.) 

The computer-controlled lighting system can mimic the diurnal and seasonal variations of natural outdoor light and other customized qualities. Researchers at UNM will use the "Smart Lighting" in its UNM HSC hospital room to conduct studies regarding the treatment of circadian rhythm disorders and health conditions such as depression, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurological diseases that have been shown to respond to light exposure of the correct spectrum, intensity and timing.