Technology Innovations That Facilitate Sunlight Exposure

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Shadow Map, Gueorg Moler
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Shadow Map
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Daylight Computer, Tristan Scott
4. 20:00 – 25:00: Eric Rose
5. 25:00 – 27:02: Embrace the Sun

Notable quotes from "Technology Innovations That Facilitate Sunlight Exposure"

• Going to be and what kind of shadow it's going to cast. The program is called Shadow Map. And today we're going to talk to Gueorg Moler, who is the founder. I sat down with…

  about Shadow Map · at 0:40

• Yeah, thanks for having me, Roger. So, our premise our company is called Daylight Computer and that's because we want to reconnect people with the real world, the nature, the…

  about Daylight Computer · at 10:25

• Still be able to go outside with this new type of technology that he's actually put together. This is Eric Rose. And Eric, tell us a little bit about yourself and this product.

  about Eric Rose · at 20:05

• No, that's good. I would recommend this book, Embrace the Sun. It's a fantastic well-ressearched book by Sorenson and Grant has reference to 1,200 studies and papers on vitamin D and sun exposure. And then just in case.

  about Embrace the Sun · at 25:59

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Gueorg Moler — Person · 1 mention · first at 0:46
  Going to cast. The program is called Shadow Map. And today we're going to talk to Gueorg Moler, who is the founder. I sat down with Gueorg and we discussed why this program is…
• Tristan Scott — Person · 1 mention · first at 10:23
  See. So, there's a solution for that. And for that, I want to introduce Tristan Scott. and go ahead.
• Eric Rose — Person · 1 mention · first at 20:10

Books & papers

• Embrace the Sun — Book · 1 mention · first at 26:02

Companies & orgs

• Shadow Map — Company · 5 mentions · first at 0:44
• Daylight Computer — Company · 2 mentions · first at 10:30
• 8 Laws Innovation — Company · 1 mention

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 medcra.com. Welcome to another MedCram video. Today we're going to be talking about ways that technology can improve the way that you can get sunlight even in the winter time. Now, here I am in Sydney, Australia in the middle of December, and it's one of the great ways of getting sunlight because it's springtime now, actually headed into summer. But, uh, you can't do this all the time, and it's pretty expensive to try to find sunlight this way. So, we're going to talk about on this episode different ways that you can use technology to actually improve your ability to get sunlight. And the first one is this pretty amazing map that allows you to see anywhere in the world, the current day, where the sun is going to be and what kind of shadow it's going to cast. The program is called Shadow Map. And today we're going to talk to Gueorg Moler, who is the founder. I sat down with Gueorg and we

0:51 discussed why this program is so important, how it came to be, and why it can be so helpful. Gueorg, welcome to the program. Well, we've been uh looking at Shadow Map, and I wanted to sort of have you come on to our MedCram channel and tell us a little bit about this app and um and what it can do. But first, tell us a little bit about you, Georg, and um why you came about to making this kind of an app.

1:17 Hey, Roger. Yeah, thanks for having me. In the beginning, I loved the sun and 14 years ago, it was actually pretty much a similar winter as I have it right now in Vienna. I didn't see the sun for two weeks. So, you can imagine the sun doesn't rise very very high up and we have um tall buildings. So, it's really hard to find the sun like actually for two weeks I couldn't see it 14 years ago. And then I had this idea when I was standing on a balcony looking over Vienna. I I thought hey it would be cool to have an application that at least during noon where the sun is at the highest position shows me some spots in the city where I can just sit in the sun. That was the original idea and I noted it down into my notepad among I don't know 20 other ideas and then um yeah like seven years later from that point and also one startup later I decided to just start building it like there was still no satisfying solution

2:07 out there. I'm an engineer. So I started computer science and visualization and I I was just I had enough energy, enough momentum inside me that I started programming it. That's the foundation how it came into place and many things happened since then. So we launched a prototype four years ago and it it resonated well you know and also while while I was building it I realized that this has so many application scenarios. The sun influences so many aspects of our lives and this is also why this application has positive impact on on many different areas.

2:40 Wonderful. Yeah. Let's take a look at the app and and what it can do. Yeah, for sure. Let me share my screen. This is basically shadow map. You can imagine it like a three-dimensional Google maps with the great addition of a sunlight model. So you see like the sun path here. You can just take the sun here and drag it around and you directly see how the shadows behave in this in this region. Um we have threedimensional buildings, we have trees, we have um terrain, elevation, all that stuff is considered and you get a very precise depiction of how the sunlight moves.

3:14 This is today, December 12th, but I can also just go into summer and you immediately see how everything changes. And again, you can just change the time of the day and see how the shadows behave, which is like a classical use case. If you want to buy a new house, a new apartment, you can see how the light situation behaves throughout the year and then you don't end up like buying a house. Maybe you checked it out physically in summer, but then you end up in winter and you see there is no sunlight, which is really an interesting case. I want to show you a feature which is the analytics feature. And if I go into this mode, I get a threedimensional heat map of all the sunlight that reaches the surface across the year.

3:50 This is now the whole year. And what you can also do is you can just limit this to the winter months. Let's say I'm taking January for example. And now I see that some of the facades don't really get any sun anymore. So here for example, we have this dark spot. If I click here, I see that on this surface we only have 2.4 24 hours of sunlight a day which is because there is shadow being cast from the neighboring building. Whereas on this building for example we have sunlight across the year because there is nothing blocking it and I can click here and I see that on this facade I still have 7 hours of sunlight even in the midst in the in the darkest winter. What you can also do is you can just customize this. So let's say you have an evil neighbor who is building like a house right in front of you. I'm just quickly drawing a shape here. And this shape let's make it a little bit higher. It directly casts shadows onto

4:40 the building. So you see how this affects the building. And if you go analytics mode again, you also directly see that you don't have these lots of sun hours anymore. It's basically halfed. So it's a very simple tool to gain proper understanding of sun availability anywhere in the world.

4:57 Yeah, you can really see how when you're living in an environment where there's tall buildings, that can have a tremendous impact on the amount of sunlight you're getting. I guess if you wanted to go out on a trip outside and you're in the city and you wanted to go to a particular park at a particular time on a particular day, you could actually figure out if there was going to be sunlight so long as the weather was good. That's amazing that you can actually predict with that degree of accuracy if there's going to be sunlight when and where. Exactly. And I mean, as you said, like you can use it for anything. Like we have users who use it for theme projects and of course the whole topic about getting morning sun, that's not so easy in the city. So, as I said, I live in Vienna and this looks like this right now. If if I'm like in December here, like getting morning sun, it's practically impossible if you don't

5:44 live high up in in the higher apartment floors. Like on the ground level, it's basically not possible. Like unless you go for like 30 minutes walk into a larger park or something. And in these regions, it's really helpful to to find like those tiny little spots where you can go out, have some morning sun or evening sun or watch a sunset or drink a coffee in in a nice restaurant in the sun like all these things. This has actually resonated with a lot of people and and in fact there are some companies that are in real estate that have picked up this idea and tell us a little bit about that.

6:16 I would love to. Yeah, I mean we're very proud that we are partnering with Redfin. It's the third largest real estate platform in the US and they have integrated us now. So you this is a typical Red Fin listing page. You have all the images and some meta data and if you scroll down you have a little widget that shows you like the average sun hours in June and December. So this one is a pretty sunny spot. I think it's in San Francisco. And then you can just click on the sun simulation here. shadow map is loading right on the spot and you you see the property you're you're looking at and then you can look at this thing um across the day again across the year. That's a really cool property as you see because it gets sunlight from the east from the south

6:55 and if somebody wanted to put like a solar panels on the roof they could uh also use this app

7:00 100%. Yeah. So because you said on the roof the cool thing about shadow map it's like fully 3D. So we not only support like roof analytics. This is not in German because my computer is in German but you would see this in English on your machine. So you see the kilowatt hours per square meter that hits this surface or the sun hours per day. But you can also click on this facade here. So if you want to install facade PV shadow map because it's inherently three-dimensional. We work on any surface. You also get like how many sun hours and kilowatt hours you have on vertical surfaces.

7:29 That's fascinating. Quite unique actually. And you can also of course limit the month. Let's say we can only do January again. And then you also see that of course the kilowatt hours for this month are reduced or on the facade the same situation. And you can also just I don't know look at springtime or whatever you want. It's pretty flexible and easy to use. Real quick uh gear just tell us a briefly what is available in the free app that people can access and then what is available for those that want to pay a subscription or or premium. What what are they getting?

7:59 So in the free app what you can do is you can edit 3D data. You can remove buildings, you can add uh threedimensional structures and you can look at the situation throughout the current day. So this is for free always going to be free. The idea back then was that I want to help people to find the sun at the current day. They are not charged for anything. As soon as you want to go deeper and you want to understand how your future home is going to look like, you want to look at it across the year like change the date or do analytics or also like a feature that I haven't even shown yet is like Google 3D tiles. So we have Google 3D buildings with textures. Like all these things cost additional money. We have three different plans starting very cheap at 10 €10 a month. You can also get annual subscriptions. We have even a cheaper product at $30 or dollars per year. And then we have like our premium products

8:48 which are aimed for B2B architect 60 planners that starts at $60 per month. So Gorg, where can they go to actually sign up for this?

8:56 You can just go on shadowmap.org. org. That's our website. Just switching to English here. So again, yeah, shadowmap.org and you get information about all our products, what you can do with it, and you can just launch the app right away. It's a web-based application, so it runs in your browser. We also have an iOS app that you find in the app store just by typing Shadow Map and you will be served. Runs on app iPads and iPhones. You can also use um Shadow Map on Android, of course, but we don't have a dedicated app there yet.

9:27 Wonderful, Garrick. Thank you so much for joining us on MedCram and showing us how people can get outside and find where the sun is. It was great to have you.

9:35 Yeah, thank you, Roger. And uh thanks for taking the time and your curiosity on the topic and spreading a word. Thank you.

9:42 What do you do once you actually get outside? Um and this is really important because we just talked to Gorg about finding the sun outside and that can be difficult in cities because of skyscrapers, buildings, roofs, all sorts of things. But when you're out there, you want to be able to enjoy yourself. And that may be for some people just kicking back and and veggieing as we as we used to call it. Or you may want to be productive. You want to be connected. You want to answer emails, listen to music. And as you'll find out quickly, when you pull out, you know, your regular standard iPhone or smartphone, that screen heats up pretty quick. It gets pretty dim and it's really hard to see. So, um, there's a solution for that. And for that, I want to introduce Tristan Scott. and uh go ahead.

10:25 Yeah, thanks for having me, Roger. So, our premise uh our company is called Daylight Computer and that's because we want to reconnect people with the real world, the nature, the outdoors that really gives us all the input signals to drive biological function optimally. And unfortunately, we have the majority of our waking time is spent indoors because our work, our education, and the technology that we use to do those things is really keeping us there. It's not designed, as you mentioned, to be used outside. Your phones overheat. You can't see your MacBook screen. You're squinting. And that's because they're not really designed to work with nature.

11:05 So, there's a lot of other reasons why they're problematic. You know, they emit lots of blue light. They have flickering light. They can be stressful, disrupt our sleep, but in terms of getting outside, they're just not really made for that at all. So, inherently, all of our time during the day, which is the crucial time to be outside, is spent indoors under this artificial environment and it's negatively affecting our health. So, our product, the daylight computer, which I should be outside right now, um, but you know, we're taking this call. So the daylight computer we've tried to solve this and kind of the reasons uh technology is detrimental for a few reasons but at the core we have like a reflective display.

11:45 So it's similar to a Kindle or an e-reader and that it has a reflective display. You can use it outside has really long days of battery life. Won't overheat as easily because when you're outside there's no light being emitted from it. It's actually reflecting the light similar to how all colors and light is is acting in nature. So it's it's working with the sun instead of against it. And that allows you to get the benefits of of being outside, right? Because that's where all those input signals are. So unlike a Kindle, however, or an e-reader, we have a the fastest e-paper display technology that we invented. So we really love the Kindle, the e-readers, but we always wanted to do more. So our display has up to 120 frames per second refresh rate so that you can do email, you can do web browsing, you can do anything like a normal laptop computer can do, but uh on a paperlike display and outside. So

12:43 that's the real benefit of it. Wow, that that is amazing. And actually I I have one here and of course I have it set to uh our MedCram website, but I've been playing with it as well and and we've got some uh some footage of that that will sort of show that and demonstrate that outside. Uh this is this is quite uh interesting. I mean I'm I'm thinking in terms of schools. I'm thinking in terms of getting students outside. This is not like um this is not like a Christmas ornament, right? where it's like sparkly and it attracts attention away from everywhere else and you're just like glued to it like you I see my teenagers doing sometimes. It's it's kind of you've I think you've intentionally kind of made it less interesting on purpose. Tell me a little bit more about that.

13:27 Yeah. Well, I think anybody who's maybe not even down the circadian or mitochondrial rabbit hole like we are knows that screen time is really not great for us. that our phones, our our laptops, our tablets, they're inherently a bit overstimulating. They're they're addicting. And why is that? Well, I mean, it's because they're purposefully designed to just really be captivating. They're optimized for color performance, for processor speed, and it's trying to give you the Las Vegas casino experience all the time. So, it's really hard for us to just drop in and do work. Instead, we're on social media. we're just like context switching notifications everywhere and that's really detracting from what the tools the devices the computers could really provide for us.

14:15 So how do we fix that? Right? And schools, you mentioned this is the biggest dilemma for parents, for teachers, iPad kids is unfortunately a meme today, but it's really a struggle with getting people introduced to the digital world in a way that's not so overconuming. So for us, yes, how do we scale back? We purposefully designed our product to be a bit less a bit less stimulating, a bit less attractive so that you're not really being consumed. You're just using it as a tool. And the environmental design there, which is the key, is really important because if you can use it outside, then you're getting the stimulus. You're getting the dopamine from the environment, not the singular screen in front of your face.

15:01 So that's kind of how I think we positively change our relationship with technology and still get all the benefits of you know the amount of learning information capabilities from these tools. That's yeah so basically less is more in this case. Now there's some people out there that are techies are going to want to know okay you know how fast does this thing run? What are the connectivity? What are the features on this thing? Tell us a little bit more of the technical aspects of this uh machine.

15:29 Sure. So the the product is a 10 and a half inch tablet and it has our live paper display technology that we invented that is the fastest e-aper display. So it's 60 to 120 frames per second. So fast refresh rate that unlocks that full functionality experience. So because of that we have now a custom version of Android. So you can download any app in the Google Play Store. You can connect to keyboard, Bluetooth, wired and set it up like a mini laptop. We have more accessories coming soon, but the tablet's very versatile and you can web browse, download any app. The limitations really are it does not have color. That's by design and then it does not have a camera. So outside of that, you can pretty much use it as a mini laptop or tablet. Comes with a stylus. So as I believe you have experienced like there's a paper-like writing feel to it.

16:20 So writing reading are quite incredible. But then unlike, you know, the other e-readers, you can pop open a web browser, watch a MedCram video on YouTube, and actually learn and split screen, take notes at the same time, and you can even do that under a tree outside. So, this is the the first product. And yeah, that's kind of the rundown in terms of the the capabilities, but we're just getting started and and we want to do a whole lot more.

16:45 Yeah, I can see this as somebody who wants to get more daylight in their life. they're inside, they're in an office, you know, if they have the luxury of letting their boss get them outside uh and do this or they have a home office, this is one way of getting outside, taking the technology with you, getting those 15 or 20 minutes of sunlight that we've been talking about. Get that fresh air, those find insides, maybe sit under a tree, and still be able to be productive in a way that's that's amazing. You know, this is what I've been doing recently is is getting outside and you your your brain is just a little bit more clear. you're you know the the sunlight coming into your eyes, you're getting all of these benefits and now it doesn't have to be in competition in terms of time with uh you know basically getting outside and also doing your work and being productive. So uh great uh product. Where can people go to

17:33 find this and uh what should they know? Yeah. And just last thing um because the other key benefit and differentiator is at night time we you can sort of see but we have this amber backlight and that amber backlight is 100% blue light free and flicker free. So it's much less straining on the eyes won't disrupt your sleep melatonin circadian rhythm as much but it's still like easy to see. So for those that are looking to really optimize, you know, work at nighttime, this is also a key thing. So you're not staring at these blue dominant flickering screens at nighttime. So that's another key thing that we custom made uh as well. So

18:12 you solve problems there, brighter days and darker nights, right? That's the goal. And we know I know we have similar friends researching, you know, that stuff. And it's it's exciting that this is becoming kind of forefront knowledge for for health and well-being and then we can all be a bit more productive if if we're healthier. So you can check us out. daylightcomput.com is the main website and you did allude to schools. We talked about kids a bit. We have a kidsspecific product that's the exact same hardware but software differentiated with parental controls and things and that's kids.computer.com.

18:48 and we are actively looking to get into schools, especially younger ed elementary. So don't hesitate to reach out to me directly if you have connections or want to learn more. My email is tristan at daylightcomputer.com. Thank you so much Tristan. This has been uh really a solution to many problems. Not only have you addressed people getting outside more, which I love, but also as a sleep specialist, the fact that you're uh cutting out a lot of that blue light and having it as as an amber background for something that's not as stimulating. And then the whole issue with kids and social media and parental controls and making sure they're not being overstimulated if they have to do things on a uh on a tablet versus on pen and paper. Uh and also the ability to get them outside, which is I think just incredible. This is really uh something and I'm I'm glad that you're doing this.

19:36 It's one of the reasons why you're here on on MedCram. So, I really appreciate it.

19:40 Thanks so much, Roger. So, what we want to talk about now is when you actually get outside, let's say you're up in the northeast of the United States or it's cold and you still want to get the benefits of going outside. One of the things that we've talked about is how there's an issue with the windows blocking infrared light. My next guest is going to talk to us about how you can still get the benefits of sunlight and still be able to go outside with this new type of technology that he's actually put together. This is Eric Rose. And uh Eric, tell us a little bit about yourself and this product.

20:16 Yeah, I live in the mountains of Tennessee about 2,000 foot elevation. And it was about a year ago. It was in late November. I was reading about the healing power of sunlight and I thought, "Oh my, well, that's something I really don't get any of because it's so freezing cold outside. I I when I do venture outside, I'm probably only getting a few square inches of exposure on my face." And I thought, well, it probably wouldn't be that hard to just create kind of a greenhouse for a human, some type of enclosure that the full spectrum of sunlight could transmit through and get over your whole body.

20:57 Now, I was interested quite a bit in ultraviolet light because that's how your body is stimulated to produce vitamin D. And so it seems like almost all transparent substances block ultraviolet light. And so I found a type of film used in high-end green houses and architecture called ETF that transmits about 90% or more of both ultraviolet visible and infrared light. I was pretty amazed that it not only transmitted the whole solar spectrum like that, but it had an incredible aspect of being light diffusing. So, it gives a pretty impressive amount of modesty and privacy as well. And so, thus began about an 8-month journey of trying to figure out how I could get the materials and make one for myself.

21:51 Interesting. And so this is basically a uh a type of material that allows you say more than 90% of the light intensity to come through at all of the wavelengths, not just visible, but infrared and ultraviolet. And you can actually use this material to build things that you can go inside of basically.

22:10 Yeah, it's really a special film. It lasts up to 30 years out in the sunlight. So as as long as you don't damage it, it lasts decades. And uh the data that that I have is for 100 micron film. It's it's thin, but the film I'm using is 50 microns, half the thickness. And it that allows even more of the full solar spectrum through, especially the UV. And it's pretty much a flat line at about 90% across uh all three major wavelengths.

22:44 So what did you do with this? Uh, so they they gave you the raw materials and then what did you do with this?

22:50 Well, I wanted to create an insulated space particularly for winter use. And so, you know, right right when I thought of it, I thought, wow, this is this is, you know, so unique and so great. I thought, well, I've got to be able to put this together in a way that other people can enjoy it, too. So, I tried to come up with the easiest way and and the most cost effective way to to make an insulated space that had like an access door. And it it it turned out pretty well. My wife and I, we actually tried our first model. It was January of this year, almost a year ago, and it was pretty much the coldest sunny day of the entire year. It was 18° probably about 11:00 a.m. and we we got inside and and closed the door and it was almost magical. It was like it was surreal because it was so frigidly cold outside and then inside, you know, it was warm warm enough and and and the infrared is is really what makes your

23:51 body feel warm um in in a situation like this. And so, yeah, it was incredible. We we started laughing and uh it was it was it was a hit.

24:01 So, what is it that people can do in their own places? Let's say they've got people living, you know, in Montana or in Maine or, you know, places north of Tennessee where you are. They want to be able to have the same sort of benefits, but they're inside of a home um and it's cold outside and their windows aren't letting all of that light in. What is it that they can do? We manufactured a kit that has the essential parts that you can't just buy somewhere. We have a website. You can order our kit and then you can use commonly available lumber and rigid foam insulation to make your own sunbath. We call it the sunbath.

24:37 I see. So, this kit that you have has the the materials in it, specifically the um the glass, if you will. It's not really glass, but it's a it's a paint, right? And um and it also has the area that goes around that so you can actually fasten that to the material,

24:53 right? It has the film. It looks similar to like a translucent plastic film, but it's it's not plastic. Transparent plastic at least would degrade within maybe a year. Uh but it also has the mounting strips which are fairly special. It has a type of plastic with weather stripping and then a low surface energy adhesive because the the film itself is is pretty slippery.

25:17 So if people get creative and they want to build something bigger um and maybe even have like maybe a solarium off of their place that they can go into um they can they can get the same sort of materials and and just piece the stuff together and like building blocks basically. Right.

25:32 That's that's basically the thing. Uh if anyone wants to make something bigger, I would encourage to reach out and actually give me a call.

25:39 Okay. All right. Well, where can they go to uh check this out? Our website is 8 lawsinnovation.com. That's ei lawsinoinnovation.com.

25:50 Great. We will be uh obviously putting that link in the description below on this video. But if you're interested in looking at that, that would be great. Thank you so much, Eric. Is there anything else?

25:59 No, that's good. I I would recommend uh this book, Embrace the Sun. It's a fantastic well-ressearched book by Sorenson and Grant has reference to 1,200 studies and papers on vitamin D and sun exposure. And then just in case anyone wants to see kind of how this uh ETF film looks like, uh this is a a sample and the further I am from the film, the less detail you can you can see. So it's it's pretty unique. Thank you so much, Dr. Roger.

26:31 Thank you so much, Eric. Uh, thanks for coming on the show and um, we'll be hearing more, I'm sure. Well, thanks for watching. I hope this was helpful. We don't have any affiliation with any of these products, but we will leave a link in the description below. Thanks for joining us.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Technology Innovations That Facilitate Sunlight Exposure"?

In order: 0:00 Shadow Map, Gueorg Moler; 5:00 Shadow Map; 10:00 Daylight Computer, Tristan Scott; 20:00 Eric Rose; 25:00 Embrace the Sun.

What is mentioned in this MedCram - Medical Lectures Explained CLEARLY episode?

7 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Shadow Map, Daylight Computer, Gueorg Moler, Tristan Scott, Eric Rose, Embrace the Sun. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Technology Innovations That Facilitate Sunlight Exposure"?

The episode runs 27 min; the transcript is about 5,214 words in 51 timestamped sections.

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