Using sunlight to brighten a room sounds like a good idea. I love working from my bedroom because my room faces east and has the sun shining in during most of the day, and everyone knows more sunshine equals a yes, good situation. Lucy is a new product from a company called Solenica that tries to fill more spaces with sun. It just launched on Indiegogo and claims to be able to redirect sunlight in order to illuminate rooms.
Lucy is solar-powered (of course) and can be put inside or outside. It just needs to be in direct sunlight. Once set up, a user has to point it in a direction to aim the sunlight it's basking in, like a window inside a room that you want brightened. It'll then use an algorithm to track the sun throughout the day to keep light in that specified room. It’s essentially a mirror that’s controlled by an algorithm that knows how to find sunlight. See here:
It’s not the same thing as a "happy light," which is supposed to make you feel better in the dark winter months by mimicking sunlight; Lucy relies on real sunlight to create the same effect. It is also supposed to be weatherproof, although I'm not sure if it's snowproof. Maybe though! We don't know how well it works, but I will say that Lucy at least looks real pretty.
Okay, with all that being said, I do have one major concern with Lucy, and that is the idea that someone could be temporarily blinded. Think of a magnifying glass that redirects sunlight to burn and kill ants. The sun is scary bright and strong. That would be terrible to have in your eye. Okay, that is all.
Lucy starts at $199.
