LIGHT-BEAT: REACTIVE LIGHT FOR THE EMOTIONAL COMFORT OF NEWBORN  BABIES

Sammanfattning: This is a project-based thesis focusing on the investigation of topics related to human newborns and the factors found in their surrounding environment that need to be assessed so as to provide them with a feeling comfort. The objective is to boost their emotional development by the means of light in a close relation to sound so as to provide them with a type of intelligence allowing them to normally interact within a society during their adult life, reassuring social equality and eliminating potential social exclusion due to unexpected behaviours. After researching topics to have a better understanding of the newborn baby and its enclosing environment, a luminaire design solution -functioning with a reactive scheme performed with integrated sound sensors- provided further results to the main topic investigation. The conceptual scheme for the product development was inspired by the connection between the newborn and their life-giver, closely linked to the cross-modality of sensory development before and after birth. Additional results were obtained with light measurement assessments and a parent survey targeting both the intended light quality subjective evaluations and the marketing strength of the designed product. This survey was used -along with other means- as a design evaluation tool at the final stage of the design process. Potential further improvements as well as considerations for a distinct spatial application are discussed in the final part of the thesis. The sustainability aspect covered within this degree project is closely linked to good physical and mental health aspects, clean energy use and efficiency achieved by the integration of input sound sensors and controls, and conscious production and consumption by the proposal of low global footprint materials for the luminaire design. In the conclusions, an overall summary of the thesis outcomes is presented and further research is proposed regarding both the main topic investigation as well as a greater user category that can be related to the light metric assessments that were carried out for this research.