Smart Lighting System

The smart lighting system will mitigate light pollution by shining effective light, while the ALAN generator will use Artificial Light at Night to generate electricity for the lighting system. 

My smart lighting system is a technology meant to mitigate the effects of light pollution. It works by using a computer program that uses the Teensy to autonomously collect data from the SQM, RGB, and PIO sensors on the surrounding environment. Based on the data collected, the RGB LEDs luminosity and color change to fit the surroundings. For example, the darker it gets outside, the lower the luminosity of the LED, and the bluer the sky, the bluer the color of the LED. Furthermore, my ALAN electricity generator will be a special photovoltaic system meant for 3eV which will convert ALAN into electrical energy. The semiconductors used to create the photovoltaic cell will Zinc Oxide which has a band gap of 3.37 eV. Considering that ALAN is around 3.2 eV, 100% of the ALAN light will be converted into electricity, making our system twice as effective as standard solar panels.

For millions of years the human species has evolved to sleep during the night, and that has become the key characteristic to our natural circadian rhythms. However, modern cities and highly populated areas nowadays threaten those circadian rhythms. Through unnecessary lighting and careless structural design, humans and animals are exposed to dangerous amounts of blue light and bright lights, not to mention the devastating economic impact. In populated areas such as Chicago, interior and exterior lights from skyscrapers contribute to the alarming rate of light pollution. Human’s detect dim light when going to sleep due to the photoreceptors in the retina which are light sensitive layers in our eyes. When this happens, melatonin is suppressed which causes our circadian rhythms to be messed up. This is detrimental as epidemiological studies have uncovered that insufficient sleep causes elevated risks of diseases including: cancer, depression, cardiovascular disease, obesity, mood disorders and age-related macular degeneration. For example, 98% of males & females develop breast carcinoma under the exposure of fluorescent light. Besides human beings, the environment is also impacted. During migration season for birds, lights from skyscrapers attract birds causing them to fly towards buildings. Sky glow changes the strength of the moonlight stimulus which disrupts the synchronized response in animals and leads to breeding failure. It also affects spectral quality where species have evolved to function under particular light regimes and their ability to receive light stimuli and respond to them are finely tuned to particular qualities of the visual spectrum. 

Light pollution is particularly prevalent in urban areas as light pollution arises from a combination of extensive urban expansion, highway development, the provision of brighter road lighting, and the proliferation of glass buildings from which light easily spills. In commercial districts of big cities, a significant contribution to light pollution is from leaving office lights on overnight.” This “results in excessive upwards reflection to the sky.” In industrialized economies, approximately 20% of the population work night or rotating shifts, but more alarmingly, 99% of American and European populations experience nighttime light exposure. The effects of light pollution are emphasized in low income neighborhoods where it is difficult to attain resources that would take preventative measures to reduce the effects of ALAN(Artificial light at night). Low income areas also have more risk factors in play including more stress, poor living conditions, and unequal exposure to ALAN. Oftentimes, additional lights are added to such low income neighborhoods to improve safety. Yet, a growing body of evidence proves that not only does added lighting not impact safety positively,  it increases energy consumption and disrupts the ecosystem. As a result however, people that live in such neighborhoods tend to sleep less than six hours a day. In addition to air molecules and aerosols scattering and redirecting light downwards, those lights then reflect off moisture and particulate air matter thus producing an artificial brightening of the sky and glare.

While working with the Adler Planterarium, my team met with leading professors and researchers interested in light pollution. Also, considering that we are from Chicago, during the research period, we would go around our own urban communities and gather data(taking photos and measuring luminosity using sensors) on light pollution in our own communities. Furthermore, when we were creating our lighting systems, we implemented them in our own houses and saw how they could be used.

During the summer I worked with the Adler Planetarium to create a solution to mitigate light pollution. We ended up creating was a small prototype of what could be a larger scale, more advanced lighting system that actively uses computer science and abides by International Dark Sky Association standards to mitigate light pollution. Using digital electronics we successfully created the smart lighting system which uses an RGB LED. We were then able to successfully program the lighting system to automatically collect data and change color/luminosity. I was then able to successfully test the solution by running a program to check whether data on luminosity was being collected by the system. While the prototype works as intended, I envision creating a larger scale version of the prototype that would have the luminosity to replace indoor and outdoor lighting in commercial and residential buildings. Afterwards, I began working on a supplementary electricity generator that could somehow take advantage of Artificial Light at Night to generate electricity(almost like a solar panel for the night). I have designed the electricity generator and believe that it would be possible to create, however, I currently do not have the money nor materials to do so.

The smart lighting system will use an RGB sensor which measures how much red, green, and blue lighting there is in light from 400 to 1100 nm, the RGB LED will then adapt it’s red, green, and blue coloring based on the data to match its coloring to the environment. The smart lighting system will also have an SQM sensor which will measure the luminance of the night sky and quantify the skyglow aspect. The RGB LEDs lighting intensity will then be modified to resemble the intensity of lighting in the environment. In addition, the lighting system will use a PIO sensor which will detect any movement. If none or minimal motion is detected, the lighting system will decrease in brightness or turn off, on the other hand, if motion is detected, the lighting system will increase in brightness. The lighting system will also take advantage of a Spectrometer which will combine three circuits to output 20 channels of color from the IR to UV range. Furthermore, we would need a microcontroller with SD Card data logging, preferably a Teensy 4.1 In order to make the ALAN Electricity generator, the primary technology being used would be new photovoltaic cells. In order to create these cells, we would need to use Zinc Oxide nano powder as the semiconductors in the photovoltaic cell, as well as phosphorus and boron to dope the Zinc Oxide.

My solution is currently not implemented anywhere due to a lack of material and financial resources. I hope to expand the product to around 200 people in my local community next year if I get the financial resources. The reason for 200 is because as a new product, it would not be too much people, but enough to get many different people to test the product and give valuable feedback.

I think the most immediate thing that we will need to work towards is to  establish electrical power between the commercial/residential building and the electronic system using a voltage adapter or transformer. Afterwards, I envision implementing the light solution as people's porch lamps/driveway lights outside their homes so that if there is a problem, there is no threat to the actual home, and it could be easily removed. Furthermore, it would allow for home owners to easily observe if their lighting system is working.

We would measure the progress by not only receiving feedback from the 200 initial light system testers, but we would also test to see if the sensors are collecting data in the software application.

The biggest barrier for the project is a lack of financial resources and materials. In addition, I do not have the storage room to mass create these lighting systems nor electricity generators. In addition, the solution might be unable to connect building’s electricity to the light system due to different levels of voltage or due to different currents(AC/DC). 

We have previously developed more basic versions of the device in the Adler Planetarium's ASW program. We would highly value this opportunity, as we’re from Chicago and this could help us apply our background experience to creating a device which would solve a significant and emerging issue in our urban communities.

I was part of the Adler Planetarium Astro-Science Workshop where I researched, designed and developed the smart lighting system.