Ario Lighting is a startup
company located near University of Washington looking for students in EE and
CSE to become part of a team developing an innovative and health-promoting system
of solid-state light fixtures and controls.
Light
at night (LAN) and rapidly spreading LED lighting in particular present an
array of health problems [1] that are becoming better understood
every day. It is possible to build lighting systems that avoid these problems
and that is the aim of our startup.
Dale Dell’Ario, founder, has been investigating LAN, health
impacts, LED technology, and building prototype light engines for several
years. He needs your help to develop
this new lighting system. Your expertise
in hardware or software can make a critical contribution to this effort.
The system will use proprietary or specially chosen LEDs in
its light engines, and will include dedicated control and communication I.C.s.
in the fixtures. The light engines will
incorporate thermal and real-time color feedback for fixture local color
control. Fixtures will be networked to a
central controller and ambient light sensors.
For reliability the network will operate in dual modes via RF link and
power line. Applications will coordinate
the fixtures within this controller and link to the user’s smart phone.
The project team will develop prototype light fixtures and a
controller. It will write fixture local
color and command routines, and at least one system control application. Ario Lighting will provide a system
specification to be refined by the team, parts for the prototypes, and funding
for project material. Ideally this
project could become one or more Capstone efforts that possibly collaborate
with a business team at UW as part of the Environmental Innovation
Challenge. At the least, motivated team
members are welcome as candidates for long-term involvement in this start-up. Interested students should contact Dale at ddellario@msn.com or 206 852-4877 for more information and to
discuss this opportunity.
[1] 1. Czeisler, C. A. Perspective:
Casting Light on Sleep Deficiency (Nature
497, S13, 23 May 2013) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v497/n7450_supp/full/497S13a.html
