As the lighting environments in which humans navigate their lives have drastically changed over the last century, it is crucial to understand the properties of light as received in normal living conditions. To do so, it was important to design Spectrace as a small, lightweight and portable tool that can be worn outside of laboratories from early morning until bedtime. No bigger than a common USB stick, the subtle wearable consists of two completely separable parts held together by efficiently placed strong magnets - allowing users to attach the device to their individual clothing or accessories. This allows for aesthetic and comfortable placement solutions near the user’s head, needed to collect meaningful data.

Spectrace’s housing is made of anodized aluminum and borosilicate glass. Underneath the latter three LED lights are indicating the battery level, when the bottom part is removed. The docking station available in different colors should be placed close to one’s bed, serving as a charging station that simultaneously offloads the collected data.

Spectrace was developed in collaboration with the Laboratory of Integrated Performance in Design (LIPID), EPFL, and Octanis Instruments.