In the wake of the Revelation SkyCeiling™ summer launch, a next generation virtual skylight that creates a palpable feeling of expanded space in larger spaces, The Sky Factory now unveils the Personal Revelation SkyCeiling—a 2’ X 6’ portal to nature—designed to be mounted over patient beds.
Designed as an illusion of nature™ that deepens biophilic engagement—our innate, genetic-based need to affiliate with nature—this restorative installation triggers an automatic “relaxation response” in the physiology.
“Practically no hospital today designs a patient room without generous windows preferably overlooking a beautiful natural landscape,” says Bill Witherspoon, founder of The Sky Factory. “Research has shown that visual access to nature is therapeutic and healing, so what can be done in patient rooms that do not have this access?
“The Personal Revelation SkyCeiling was designed to address this widespread situation by creating a convincing illusion of nature, one that engages the areas of our brain involved in spatial cognition, thereby triggering a feeling of expansion and well-being.”
“We can now exploit the full range of our Open Skies Image Technology™ and match the most sweeping interior architectural spaces with an equally powerful and engrossing illusion of overhead skies,” remarks Witherspoon.
The new image panels used for the Revelation SkyCeiling, called SkyTiles™ are 4 times larger than the current standard size of 2′ X 2′ (0.61 X 0.61 m.). The larger size allowed the design team to also deepen the profile of the reveal and underscore the visual displacement from the ceiling plane.
Employing Sky Factory’s award-winning Open Skies Image Technology, an artistic tool that consistently elicits an experience of vastness by engaging the cerebellum, which is involved in the perception of depth, the Personal Revelation SkyCeiling provides visual respite from clinical surroundings-helping patients relax-and imbues healthcare settings with nature’s unmatched healing properties.
Pioneering Scientific Validation
Sky Factory’s illusions of nature have been studied by Texas Tech University’s Neuroimaging Institute and the results published in the peer-reviewed Health Environments & Research Journal (HERD), Winter, 2014.
A second study by Texas Tech University, In the Lap of Nature: Benefits of Nature Stimulus in Patient Room Ceilings, found that Sky Factory’s Luminous SkyCeilings™ installed in a medical-surgical inpatient unit significantly lowered the level of acute stress and anxiety among subjects, by over 50% and 34% respectively. (This study is currently undergoing peer-review review in a scholarly journal.)
Virtual skylights designed as biophilic illusions of nature™ are used by leading healthcare and commercial environments worldwide to trigger an automated relaxation response in the physiology. This experience enhances human wellness and task performance by enlivening our innate connection to nature – biophilia.
