Building useful things. Measuring them properly.
Independent Innovations is an independent engineering and product-development effort founded by Ryan J. Kari to explore ideas that fall outside his primary professional work.
The first of those ideas became Rejuvulite, a personal red and near-infrared light device developed from the ground up with an emphasis on practical design, controlled output, and understanding the engineering behind the light being delivered.
Building it led to another problem.
From Rejuvulite to Optiverity
Developing and calibrating Rejuvulite required measuring its optical output rather than simply relying on LED specifications or calculated values. That process exposed how difficult it can be to characterize the actual output of red and near-infrared light devices with readily available measurement tools.
Further investigation suggested that the problem was considerably broader.
Photobiomodulation research frequently describes treatments in terms of wavelength, irradiance, exposure time, and dose. Commercial devices are often characterized under manufacturer-defined test conditions that may differ substantially from how they are actually used. Measurement technique, distance, source geometry, spectral response, and other factors can all influence the reported result.
What began as a calibration problem for Rejuvulite therefore became an instrumentation project of its own.
That project is Optiverity.
Optiverity is a work in progress exploring better ways to characterize optical irradiance and spectral output. As development has continued, the potential applications have expanded beyond red and near-infrared therapeutic devices. Similar measurement questions arise with LED panels and other multi-wavelength sources, while horticultural lighting presents another particularly interesting application where both light intensity and spectral distribution matter.
The current development effort is investigating how multiple optical sensors, spectral information, precision analog measurement, and careful calibration can be combined into a practical instrument that provides more useful information than a conventional single-value light meter.
The objective is deliberately experimental: develop the hardware, characterize its behavior, understand its limitations, and determine what can be measured reliably before making claims about what the finished instrument can do.
Independent Innovations
The path from Rejuvulite to Optiverity reflects the broader purpose of Independent Innovations.
It is a place to pursue engineering ideas that begin with a practical problem and are worth investigating far enough to determine whether a better solution can be built.
Some may become products. Others may simply lead to better understanding or to the next problem worth solving.
The products may be different, but the approach remains consistent:
Understand the physics. Measure what matters. Build around what the measurements actually show.
Founder
Ryan J. Kari is an engineer with more than two decades of experience developing sensing, measurement, electronics, and electromechanical systems.
He holds an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota.
Independent Innovations is Ryan’s independent venue for developing and exploring engineering ideas outside his primary professional work.