Created by designer Kelton Ray Minor, the Sunn has a variety of functions, but the basic idea behind it is simple. Using a smartphone app, the light can be synchronized to any time zone in the world so that it mirrors the natural rise and fall of the sun in that particular area. In other words, the fixture slowly gets brighter as dawn approaches, reaches peak brightness at high noon, and slowly begins soften as evening creeps up.
But there’s a bit more to it than that. The Sunn also gradually changes colors to more accurately mimic the sun’s hue at a given time of day. In the early morning, when the sun is near the horizon, the Sunn’s LEDs will give off more of an amber hue to ease you awake. In the afternoon, as the sun gets brighter, the light puts off more blue wavelengths of light, helping you stay awake and alert. When evening comes around, the Sunn returns to a more amberish color to help you relax and get ready for bed. It’s even got a “moon” function that gives off a soft white glow when you need some light in the middle of the night.
Of course, if you should ever want to adjust the light manually, you can just fire up the accompanying smartphone app and tweak the Sunn’s brightness and color settings to your liking; it’s not locked into following the sun’s cycle all the time. The app also makes it possible to sync the Sunn to time zones other than your own, allowing you to stay connected to places you don’t physically inhabit, or even acclimate yourself to a new time zone before you travel there.
Related: Here comes the sun (-light lamp that will make getting out of bed less agonizing)
Despite launching just a few days ago, the project is already just a few thousand dollars short of its $50,000 funding goal. If you back the project before it’s over, you can lock down a Sunn light for about $250-$350, depending on whether you opt for the 19- or 24-inch version. Minor and the rest of the Sunn team hope to ship the first units to backers as early as April 2015, assuming the campaign reaches its goal before December 19th.
