Development and validation of a 'MyLyt' wearable light tracking device

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Biomedical Engineering
• Wearable Technology

Background:

• Accurate measurement of light exposure is crucial for understanding its impact on health.
• Existing methods for light exposure assessment can be cumbersome or lack real-time capabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate and assess the feasibility of using a novel clip-on light tracker, MyLyt, for real-time light exposure estimation.
• To evaluate the MyLyt device's performance in both controlled and real-world settings for children and adults.

Main Methods:

• The study involved two phases: Phase 1 for validation against a calibrated lux meter under controlled, outdoor, and indoor conditions, assessing intra-test, inter-test, and inter-device reliability.
• Phase 2 involved a feasibility study with 21 adults and 8 children using the MyLyt tracker and an activity diary to correlate light levels with movements.
• Validation metrics included inter-class correlation, Bland-Altman analysis, sensitivity, and specificity.

Main Results:

• The MyLyt tracker demonstrated strong positive correlations and minimal differences compared to the lux meter across controlled, outdoor, and indoor conditions, with high repeatability.
• While indoor measurements showed a statistically significant difference, it was clinically insignificant.
• Phase 2 confirmed high sensitivity (97.8%) and specificity (99%) in differentiating outdoor and indoor environments.

Conclusions:

• The MyLyt clip-on light tracker offers good repeatability and strong correlation with standard lux meters.
• Its comparable performance across various conditions makes it a suitable tool for tracking light exposure patterns in both research and clinical applications.
• The device is feasible for use in real-world settings by diverse age groups.