An innovative window system earns a European patent

A window-glazing system developed by an EPFL team uses micro-mirrors to improve the lighting and visual comfort inside buildings and could also make window blinds obsolete one day. The European Patent Office has just granted the system patent protection. Are window blinds about to become a thing of the past? They just might, thanks to a ground-breaking window glazing system developed by a team at EPFL's Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory (LESO-PB). The innovation's quality and potential have also now been recognized by the European Patent Office, which has granted it patent protection. 'This patent shows that our approach is original and that our system is unique and merits patent protection,' says Andreas Schüler, a research associate at the LESO-PB. 'It's also reassuring for industry, in the event manufacturers want to use this discovery in the future.' Schüler designed the system together with PhD student Jing Gong and André Kostro, a researcher currently based in Basel. Laser-cut micro-mirrors Schüler's team fitted their windows with a layer of micro-mirrors whose thickness ranges from 0.15 to 0.2 millimeters.