Even as far back as the 80’s, companies and inventors were playing with the idea of using fiber optic cables to bring daylight into office spaces.

It was interesting to learn that there are indeed some buildings in Japan that have these systems. It seems pretty cool, but requires actual physical fiber optic cabling from the source to each light in the building. It also requires trackers that point the collectors continually at the sun, and they don’t work if it’s cloudy or at night. This makes it great for daytime offices with lots of yearly sunlight, but probably not great of apartments/homes or areas that have lots of cloudy days. It also makes me wonder if these transfer full-spectrum light – which includes UV light.

Still, it’s an interesting concept.