More Bringing SciFi to Life (Via Gizmodo), we have Sunlight in a tube brought to you by the bright builds at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee:
A rooftop collector concentrates and sends sunlight through optical fibers, tubes made of special, high-purity material that transmit light by reflecting it down their inner walls….The fibers would transmit sunlight to special fixtures inside the building, which also contain high-efficiency fluorescent lighting….When the transmitted sunlight completely illuminates each room, the electric lights stay off…When less natural light is available during cloudy days and at night, a sensor activates controls that increase electric lighting adequately to supplement natural lighting and maintain desired illumination levels.
I like the idea of having a illumination switch (similar to setting the temperature?), and bringing natural light indoors (which might not work so well in, say, grey Toronto).
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