OREANDA-NEWS. October 30, 2015. No matter what the weather is like outside, from now on passengers arriving at Vilnius Airport will have a chance to feel like under the Mediterranean sun. This kind of atmosphere will be created in the baggage claim area by means of a modern light installation. CoeLux®, a unique technology that creates an impression of the natural sun and the blue sky, has been used in an airport space for the first time in the world.

CoeLux® technology is the result of ten years of scientific research born out of the desire to recount the concept of outdoor light. The research was done by Paolo Di Trapani, professor in the Department of Science and High Technology at the University of Insubria in Como, and his team. The research project was selected by the European Commission among the 12 most technologically innovative of the Seventh Framework Programme, receiving 2.5 million euros from the EU and hosted within the “Innovation Convention” 2014 in Brussels.

“Lithuanian airports are interested in modern solutions – we were the first among the Baltic States to open a cinema this spring; we are now the first airport in the world providing our arriving passengers with an opportunity to enjoy sunlight even before they get outside. We hope that the unique installation will lift the spirits of passengers arriving in Vilnius, and perhaps even increase the flow of passengers interested in technologies and their application in public spaces,” said Gediminas Almantas, CEO of Lithuanian Airports.

Set up in the baggage claim area, the installation recreates the sun and the sky for a real experience of the outside while inside through a combination of three fundamental elements: a high-brightness LED projector reproducing the spectral characteristics of sunlight, sophisticated optic systems to direct the sun rays, which allow the observer to perceive the sky and the sun at infinite distance, and finally, the nano-structured material able to create the Rayleigh scattering diffusion process that happens naturally within our earth's atmosphere.

CoeLux® has developed and already commercialised two different systems which can be integrated to architectural solutions. The solutions of this technology are not yet commonly applied in the world - CoeLux® has already implemented different projects in Germany, Austria, UK, France, Italy, USA, Russia and Emirates. Lithuania has now joined this circle of countries with two installations – one at Vilnius Airport, the other at the capital’s interior salon Beola.

The technology developers are hoping to find a fertile ground for their light system in various settings such as offices, hospitals, residential housing. Their other markets are transportation, retail and hospitality, spas and even the elevator industry where this technology could be developed and used to transform the way a certain space is experienced.

About Vilnius Airport

Vilnius Airport is a part of a network of Lithuanian airports connecting three air gateways in Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga. Together they served 3.8 million passengers in 2014. Currently 17 airlines operate 67 regular routes from Lithuanian airports to 54 destinations within and outside Europe. The accessibility of the country is further increased by over 6 charter companies. As reported by the Airports Council International (ACI Europe), the contribution of Lithuanian airports to the Lithuanian GDP was 2.5% in 2013.

About CoeLux srl

CoeLux Srl is an academic spin-off of the University of Insubria, founded by Professor Paolo Di Trapani and based in Lomazzo, within the Science and Technology Park ComoNExT (Lomazzo-Como). Thanks to four projects funded by the European Commission in the context of the Seventh Framework Programme and Horizon 2020, in addition to private funding, the start-up has been able to develop the same name CoeLux® technology and bring to market the first products. Since the presentation of the first prototype (March 2014) to today CoeLux has received several prestigious international awards, including: the "Lux Awards 2014" as "Light Source Innovation of the Year", being shown in "Top 10 products 2014" the "Light Trade Awards" EdisonReport, the award from the MIT Technology Review magazine, Italian edition, as one of the 10 Italian companies "Disruptive" which in 2015 have distinguished in terms of innovation, and finally the prestigious award as "Technology Pioneer 2015 "by the World Economic Forum.