helios
A passive light therapy solution for people who suffer from seasonal affective disorder. helios connects with the user's mood and recreates outside lighting scenarios inside their homes - even when there's no sun outside.
--- like bringing a slice of sun into your room ---
Research
Conducted research on what Seasonal Affective Disorder is and how it influences some people. Held research interviews and visited show offices of professionals in the field to gain a better understanding of things like color psychology, circadian rhythm, lighting technicalities (Kelvin, Lux levels, retinas, etc.) and how they can affect a person's mood. This research was taken into consideration when designing helios.
There are not very many light therapy solutions on the market, and products such as light boxes and light visors are not very personalized.
Moodboard
Therapy, including light therapy, should be healing. This moodboard showcases a sense of serenity, warmth, comfort, dreaminess, and softness.
Ideation + Mockup
Ideated via sketches and mini sculptures for this project. The ideations focused on more organic forms to go with the calm and soothing feel of the moodboard. They would also all be table lamps, which was the best choice based on the conducted research.
Moved forward with the rainbow-like shape and constructed a larger low-fidelity prototype to get a feel for scale.
The rainbow shape was chosen at this stage because it had a grounded and stable feeling, which would translate to a sense of security within the user. It is also reminiscent of an actual rainbow, a symbol of hope and better things to come.
A remote is included, nested within the form. It is used to detect the user's mood and stress levels to determine what type of light to emit.
3D CAD
Developed the model in 3D CAD using Solidworks. This would be what is used to make a 3D print later on, so when making this model, buildability had to be taken into account. Keyshot was used to create the renderings.
Model
When making the physical model, a LED strip light was used. Pictures of the sky could be uploaded, color-swatched, and applied to the light itself. This way it can mimic outside daylight situations for the user to enjoy inside even on gloomy days. In this example, a picture of blue hour/twilight is applied to relay a sense of calmness.
Rainbow color pattern
Blue Hour color pattern
Had the parts 3D printed and then assembled the pieces together. Arranged and secured the LED strip within the rainbow portion of the structure.
Overall the model and renderings were able to convey the concept of the project across. It is a light therapy scenario where the user and the product are able to interact with each other, making a more personalized experience.
Scenario:
Its a bleak a gloomy winter outside. The user comes home from a long and tiring day and decide they need some light therapy meditation time. They pick up the remote that is tucked safely in the middle of the rainbow, and hold it in their hand and breathe. Biosensors on the handheld remote sense high stress levels, and the lamp seems to know just what the user needs. The arches automatically, slowly, activate and glow into a soft radiance of twilight colors that help put the user's mind at ease.