Tube light

Also known as a "tubular skylight", "Sunscoop" or "tubular daylighting device", this is the oldest and most widespread type of light tube used for daylighting. The concept was originally developed by the ancient Egyptians. The first commercial reflector systems were patented and marketed in the 1850s by Paul Emile Chappuis in London, utilising various forms of angled mirror designs. Chappuis Ltd's reflectors were in continuous production until the factory was destroyed in 1943. The concept was rediscovered in 1991 when Solatube International created a daylighting system based on a patent of 1986. This system has been marketed for widespread residential and commercial use. Other daylighting products are on the market under various generic names, such as "Sunscoop", "solar pipe", "light pipe", "light tube" and "tubular skylight".
A tube lined with highly reflective material leads the light rays through a building, starting from an entrance-point located on its roof or one of its outer walls. A light tube is not intended for imaging (in contrast to a periscope, for example), thus image distortions pose no problem and are in many ways encouraged due to the reduction of "directional" light.
The entrance point usually comprises a dome (cupola, which has the function of collecting and reflecting as much sunlight as possible into the tube. Many units also have a directional "collectors", "reflectors" or even Fresnel lens devices that assist in collecting additional directional light down the tube.
A set-up in which a laser cut acrylic panel is arranged to redirect sunlight into a horizontally or vertically orientated mirrored pipe, combined with a light spreading system with a triangular arrangement of laser cut panels that spread the light into the room, was developed at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. In 2003, Veronica Garcia Hansen, Ken Yeang, and Ian Edmonds were awarded the Far East Economic Review Innovation Award in bronze for this development.