But, of course, we don't all rush into the garden every time the clouds blow away, because the sun has a dark side. Its UV rays also have an ageing effect on the skin – and there is increasing concern about the rise in cases of skin cancer.
Moreover, a short-term overdose – sunburn – can cause headaches, blistered and sore skin, nausea, fever, and dehydration.
So how do you strike the right balance? How do you get the right amount of sun exposure for your particular skin type and lifestyle? And is there a magic formula that can equally be applied to a dark skinned woman in Scandinavia and a fair skinned man in the Sahara?
The challenge
We are looking for a device that will take care of the user. It must not be over-protective though and keep the user locked away, Dracula fashion, as soon as the sun comes out. But equally it must not put the user at risk from over-exposure.
Clearly the solution needs to be portable – but a perhaps a old-fashioned parasol would appeal only to ladies of a certain age and even then it only blocks out the sun, it does not allow the user to get safe doses of sunlight.
It also needs to be affordable. While this is a serious issue people do not want to feel that they are effectively paying to go outdoors.
It maybe there are solutions out there (or in people's imaginations) involving timed retraction of the brims of wide-brimmed hats, or an automated skin crawler distributing sunscreen, but we have a solution in mind that we will reveal next month.
In the meantime, if there are any ideas that you would like to share with us please leave a comment, or email your idea to tfryer@findlay.co.uk
Our solution, Soltair, came from Cambridge Consultants. It monitors sun exposure and combines the information with skin type and the user’s schedule for the day to give real-time recommendations about when it’s time to cover up or move indoors. And all in a device that’s smaller than the average car key and has a bill of materials cost of around $5.
Solitair consists of a smartphone app linked to a small sensing device that could be clipped to a bag or worn as a brooch or hairclip. All the user has to do is take an image of their skin with their smartphone – to give a pre-suntan level of pigment. The Solitair app analyses the image and combines the information with the user’s location, the weather forecast and their schedule for the day to give individual guidance on optimum times in the sun with and without sunscreen with different sun protection factors. The sensing device monitors actual sun exposure and gives real-time updates via the smartphone throughout the day – with alerts when the user is nearing the recommended maximum time.
