Today’s indoor lighting is static, as if the sun were fixed in the sky. This is unnatural and has major implications on our sleep, mood, immune system, weight, and overall well-being.
Ario is a WiFi connected lamp and lighting system that mimics the light of the sun to keep your body clock in sync and improve health.
Ario uses advanced LED technology and cloud connectivity to make your life healthier and easier.
Light Matters!
Humans evolved to live according to rhythms of the sun. We respond physically and mentally to the light around us. Today, we live in a world in which our sleep/wake cycles are easily disrupted. We often feel groggy in the morning, lethargic during the day, and restless at night.
Our bodies respond to light direction, color, intensity, and time, releasing hormones that our control our body processes – physiology, sleep, metabolism, behavior, and mood.
Based on over 15 years of scientific research from Harvard Medical School, NASA, and the NIH, Ario delivers lighting optimized for your health.
We created Ario to help you –
- Wake up naturally with sunrise-like lighting
- Increase focus and productivity with energizing blue-rich light
- Relax in the evening with sunset-like amber lighting
- Sleep better at night
- Improve health: manage weight, reduce stress, increase antioxidant levels, and boost immune system
Imagine Your Life with Ario
How Ario Works
So, how does Ario actually work? We believe technology should make our lives simpler, not more complicated as many connected home devices currently do. Ario is easy to set up and use. Just plug it in.
Setup:
- Plug the Ario lamp into the wall.
- Connect it to your WiFi via a simple phone app.
- Sit back and enjoy, while Ario figures out where you are and comes up with a lighting schedule that evolves with you over time.
Ario works automatically. If you unplug your lamp for days or weeks and plug it back in, Ario knows what to do, even when the WiFi is down.
Physical Control: User buttons (on/off, bright/dim, color) on the lamp or wall switch you already have.
Mobile and Web Access: Everything the physical controls do and more! You are in control of how to start and live your day.
- Sunrise alarm
- Time zone
- Schedule update
- Remote control
- Color temperature range
What about data? At Ario, we believe the data Ario learns about you is yours! You can safely and securely access your data via your personal account to see how you are living and make daily adjustments to live healthier.
Other cool stuff: Ario can help you prepare and recover from jet lag naturally. Ario is also compatible with other connected home devices and wearables. We would love to hear your thoughts on what you might want to connect with Ario, and the data it collects.
Science Behind Ario
Decades of research from Harvard Medical School, NASA, and leading institutions around the world have revealed a great deal of information about how light impacts and regulates our health. We designed Ario based on this large body of knowledge and on recommendations of the National Institute of Health and American Medical Association. Here is a summary.
Our body learns what time it is from light in our environment. Non-visual photoreceptors in our eyes, discovered fairly recently, are sensitive to changing levels of blue light from above. These receptors provide signals to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a tiny region located in the hypothalamus responsible for controlling our circadian rhythm, or body clock. This in turn influences the production of hormones regulating bodily process.
Today’s static artificial lights throw off our body clock by as much as three hours. While we don’t perceive this directly, this changes the balance of our endocrine system, generally reducing levels of body process regulating hormones both day and night. These changes to our basic physiology affect our metabolism which in turn impacts our sleep, behavior, mood, and general health.
Medical and lighting professionals recommend the following to promote healthy circadian rhythm, restful sleep, and overall well-being. Ario is designed to deliver what is recommended:
- Blue-rich light from above stimulates cortisol production in the morning to synchronize circadian rhythm and awaken, and during the day to maintain alertness.
- Amber-toned light with very little blue and a relatively dark ceiling, at the end of the day. This makes it easier to relax and prepare the body for sleep by facilitating the release of the hormone melatonin which is inhibited by typical light exposure at night.
Examples of Those Who Have Seen the Light
NASA Astronauts experience extreme light conditions in space, which result in circadian rhythm disruption. Over many years, NASA has learned how to use proper lighting to help astronauts compensate for significant changes in their sleep/wake cycles.
Seattle Mariners Recently, the Seattle Mariner’s redesigned their clubhouse, introducing a state-of-the-art lighting system. Players now use blue light to recover from jet lag and prepare for games and amber light to help them wind down and recover afterwards.
Our Innovation
We put together Ario’s patent-pending combination of features specifically and uniquely to support your body clock while providing beautiful light. We’ve improved upon technology that has previously been very complicated and expensive, making it available for personal use. By cloud-connecting Ario via WiFi, we enable a wide array of features that can grow over time.
- Light delivery: We provide a bright, 2400 lumens, wide color range for Ario, from 6500K blue-rich white light (mid-day sun), to 1800K amber white light (candle/fire light). We selected high performance LEDs used in large volumes by the general lighting industry to keep costs low and use custom light sources for the low end of the color range.
- Directional control: Ario has two light engines, a purpose-built and highly-integrated LED controller, and Particle P1 WiFi module which together provide Ario’s lighting power and control. To get the most brightness while maintaining comfort, we’ve carefully engineered efficient large diffusers and properly shaded them to reduce glare.
- Autonomous, easy control: Ario is equipped with a battery-backed real-time clock and program storage so it operates properly, and awakes after power-down knowing what color and direction are called for, even if your router or internet is down. Ario responds to buttons on the lamp, the switch on the wall, or remotely with your mobile phone, tablet, or computer.
- Learning algorithms: Over time, Ario safely and securely identifies patterns in how you use the lamp through machine learning and refines its schedule to deliver lighting specific to your needs. It does this using cloud computing as part of the Ario web service available from anywhere.
- Energy-efficient and long-lasting: Since Ario is solid-state, it uses only 1/5 of the energy of equivalent incandescent lighting. Our LEDs are properly driven and heatsinked to deliver more than 35,000 hours of life. The power supply is sized for minimum quiescent power draw and maximum overall efficiency. To save power further, Ario may be turned off completely like any lamp and still delivers light color and direction appropriate to your saved schedule.
Ario Spec Sheet
Team Ario
Our Story
We started with a simple concept of improving people’s health through lighting. We worked through countless research papers, development projects, prototypes, tests, and early marketing activities. We’ve received amazing encouragement and support along the way. Now we’re ready to go to market and are asking for your help to gear up for manufacturing and development.
Timeline
Rewards
Rewards are explained on the right above.
Shipping cost will vary depending upon the location. Shipments within the US will be $25 and will vary anywhere else in the world. If we are not able to arrange shipping, we will reimburse contributors. VAT will need to be covered by the recipient.
Ario comes with a one-year limited liability warranty that protects you against manufacturing defects.
Resources
We did a lot of research in the development of Ario. Our co-founder, Dale Dell’Ario, is a member of the Human Centric Design Committee and continues to learn and share what he knows. We encourage others to learn more, too. Some suggested resources are below.
Human Centric Lighting Committee (multiple articles)
How Sleep Works (Circadian Rhythms)
Seattle Mariners Club House (video)
Ario is a WiFi connected lamp and lighting system that mimics the light of the sun to keep your body clock in sync and improve health.
See Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arioliving/ario-smart-lighting-better-health?ref=category_recommended
Contact Information:
Ario
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Source: ICNW