"SkyCeilings" talk up all the stuff you'd expect about their virtual skylights: their full-spectrum light is useful for treating seasonal affective disorder; cloud patterns and perspective tricks are used to emulate the proper focus depth; the slaves chained in your stygian mine will work up to one-third more efficiently when these illusory portals are installed in the trembling shaft. But while the manufacturer Sky Factory makes a variety of custom installations, I think the neatest aspect is that the default SkyCeiling installation slips into the gridwork of the standard suspended ceiling. That makes it simple to add these fake skylights to most office spaces, even ones on the ground floor of a skyscraper.

I have one suggestion for Sky Factory, though, and while it might sound facetious I mean it genuinely: you should releases a line of SkyCeilings with fantastic imagery: boiling red skies thick with nephilim; a looming fleet of interstellar marauders; even a mostly normal sky with a little pegasus ducking behind a cloud. I'd never consider buying one of these systems for my home or office, but if there was a bit of whimsy involved it might be worth the price.

Speaking of: how much are these things? You'll have to call to speak to a "Sky Designer" to find out. Like I did. Aaron Birlson said the basic units go for about $105-115 a square foot, but the addition of something fancy — say, programmable dimming to a reddish lamp timed to the progression of the actual sunset — costs more.

I tried to blow Aaron's mind with my idea of doing fantasy scenes, but he stopped me mid-blurt, telling me about the large number of installations they've already done in home theaters that feature deep space scenes full of nebula and shooting stars. One of Sony's MMO groups apparently looked into getting one of their game's sky graphics installed in a board room. Another client was an orthodontist redoing his basement as a tribute to Star Wars (including an X-Wing cockpit mock-up) who recreated the little table at which Chewie and C-3PO play chess. Above it? A custom window looking out into a spinning galaxy. (Speaking of, can you imagine how awesome it would be to be an orthodontist in the Star Wars universe? You could retire on a sarlacc cleaning alone.)

Hopefully Sky Factory will be able to dig up more pictures for us of these custom installations.

So now I'll amend my suggestion: more fantastic skies, but this time let's make them animated.

Company Page [TheSkyFactory.com]