Stacking people into windowless offices may be a cheap way to
run a business, but it certainly takes a bite out of
productivity. As most of us can testify, we would prefer the
soothing luminescence of diffused sunlight over a static
fluorescent din. Fortunately, the Fraunhofer Institute for
Industrial Engineering IAO has developed a solution for dreary
interior environments – a series of LED panels that mimic the
sky indoors. The panels are set into a grid on the ceiling to
mimic just about any type of overcast sky, and they can be
configured to display a variety of weather conditions. The new
lighting system could actually provide an economic boost, as
tests show that daylighting improves productivity upwards of 15%
(according to the USGBC and UC Davis). The technology is not
entirely new — it is much like those LED billboards next to
freeways or in sports stadiums where the 50cm by 50cm panels are
composed of red, blue, green and white LEDs (interestingly, the
white LEDs are more efficient that the colored