How bright is the light in your living room at 8 p.m.? In your bedroom in the morning? Above your desk at noon? Laboratories can simulate indoor lighting, but they cannot reproduce the true diversity of real homes, offices and daily routines. InterLUX, EFFECTOR’s newly launched citizen-science initiative, is built to close that gap — and it needs the public to do it.
Led by the University of São Paulo (USP) with EFFECTOR adviser Prof. Dr. Patricia Targon Campana and her students, InterLUX invites anyone with a smartphone to measure the light level of a room, note the room type and location, and submit the data through a simple online form. The process is free, takes just a few minutes, and collects no personal or sensitive information. The more people take part — and the more measurements they send, at different times of day — the more complete and powerful the collective map of real-world indoor lighting becomes.
Why this matters to EFFECTOR. The project develops non-toxic organic solar cells designed specifically to harvest low-intensity indoor light and power small everyday devices — from biometric security tokens to vital-health monitors — without batteries. Those cells are engineered for the conditions people actually live in, so real-world light data is not a nice-to-have: it is what lets the consortium validate performance outside the laboratory and design for the lighting that really exists in homes, offices and schools.
In their words. Patricia Targon Campana, about InterLUX: “By taking part, you help researchers understand society’s perceptions and develop technologies that are better aligned with people’s needs.”
Take part. Grab your phone, pick a room — living room, bedroom, kitchen or workplace — and contribute your measurement. A few minutes of your time helps build a map that could shape how the next generation of sustainable electronics is designed.
