Optical devices could bring natural light into dark, highly populated areas WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In dense, urban centers around the world, many people live and work in dim and narrow streets surrounded by tall buildings that block sunlight. And as the global population continues to rise and buildings are jammed closer together, the darkness will only spread. To alleviate the problem, Egyptian researchers have developed a corrugated, translucent panel that redirects sunlight onto narrow streets and alleyways. The panel is mounted on rooftops and hung over the edge at an angle, where it spreads sunlight onto the street below. The researchers describe their design in a paper published today in Energy Express, a supplement of The Optical Society’s (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.
