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Comment by rmxt | Hacker News Reader

This looks quite nice, but the cost seems to be prohibitive for all but the highest end customers. Let's face it, if you can afford a $65k+ light fixture, then you probably won't be settling for an apartment that is in some dingy back alley, which would necessitate this fixture in the first place. The video mentioned uses of gyms and hospitals won't see this for years. Private art galleries perhaps sooner, but I wonder if paintings exposed to this light face the same issues as paintings exposed to real sunlight, degradation-wise.

That said, anybody have any suggestions for natural sunlight-like lights that aren't in this same $10k+ price range? Placebo or not, having nice light available makes for a better working environment.

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> This looks quite nice, but the cost seems to be prohibitive for all but the highest end customers.

As with all new technology, the price will eventually come down.

Correct, but I am not finding it cool it really reminds me that someday we won't have sun or open air :(

Why so pessimistic, Think about all the great use cases of this tech eg. When Elon Musk gets his Mars project going these will be invaluable to have on the spaceship. Or imagine a nyc with all buildings below ground, above ground, the entire city could be a park.

Hmm. Agree on that Elon is like the creator in Matrix Movie :)

These would be great in hospitals, not just for patients, but also people that work on the night shift and never see much daylight.

True that for people work in night shift will have fun with it. Also countries like Denmark where they hardly see sun will be glad to have this technology.

If we have fake sun and air which is indistinguishable from the real thing, why would you want the real thing?

I'm actually quite excited by the same reason -- if we can ween ourselves off of the sun with no side-effects, then that's one less roadblock between us and interstellar travel :D

It is just a way of thinking :)

insert the “take my money” meme/gif here.

“Light boxes” are a joke. The day these are even remotely feasible for consumers I will early-adopt.

Imagine you are looking to buy an apartment. The units on the south side sell for $300K. The units on the north side sell for $200K. There is a unit on the north side with this light fixture in the living room for $265K. Also, imagine there is a unit on the south side that has great natural light in the living room, but has this fixture in the hallway. It sells for $365K.

In both cases the upgraded apartments would be very compelling even at $65K in additional cost.

They would? I mean, you assert it, but it doesn't sound very compelling to me.

And are there in fact apartment buildings where otherwise identical units on the south/north side sell at 3:2 price differential?

Your example isn't very convincing. I don't see the use case of these as being a simple north/south side difference in light. I think the intended use case is for cramped urban environments (NYC, London, HK, Paris, etc.) or big cities at extreme latitudes (Stockholm, Moscow, etc.), where the market for apartment buying at the low price of $200k doesn't exist.

Using your numbers, my pragmatism says that there is absolutely zero chance of me putting 18% to 25% (65/265 to 65/365) of the cost of my apartment towards a single light fixture. $65k gets you two years of rent in a nice apartment in a decent neighborhood in NYC.

In central London, there are a large number of "iceberg houses", with basements far bigger than the original house. Strict planning constraints restrict development, but local authorities have been liberal in granting permission to develop below ground.

Many homes built by the super-rich have large areas with no natural light. Security concerns often limit window placement, and it is common to design the main bedrooms and living spaces to function as panic rooms with reinforced walls and doors.

I see a significant and lucrative market for this product.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/nov/09/billiona...

Perhaps recessional photo studio lights? I imagine photographers are picky, so those lights hav to be good.

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