High-Efficiency Dynamic Lighting Systems

Through this program, Glint Photonics has developed high-efficiency automated directional lighting fixtures. The fixtures produce beams of light whose direction, intensity, and color temperature can be adjusted remotely via an app or automatic control system. The project also included a demonstration of a fully automated task-lighting system, in which sensors detected the location of room occupants and automatically directed task lighting to their location.

Such automated systems can dramatically alter the deployment of lighting in the built environment, making lighting dynamic and responsive to changing use patterns and conditions, rather than fixed static distribution. The potential impacts include not only higher quality lighting and greater visual comfort, but also significant energy savings by reducing wasted light that results from uniform lighting in most spaces to account for maximum use cases at all times. Indeed, potential annual energy savings of up to 8 terawatt-hours are possible within California investor-owned utility service areas.

The fixtures developed in this program employ Glint’s proprietary LightShift optics, which enable beam-steering adjustment via small in-plane motion of a lightweight optical component while the fixture itself remains stationary. This unique design is particularly valuable for remotely adjustable fixtures, as it greatly reduces mechanical complexity and load magnitude, enabling low-cost and high-reliability designs. The stationary nature of the fixture also results in simplified and highly attractive installation and eliminates the distracting motion otherwise associated with remotely adjustable fixtures. The prototypes developed in the program met all technical performance targets and were tested successfully in a pilot installation at the offices of a prominent California lighting designer.