Light enables us to see and perceive our environment but it also initiates effects beyond vision, such as alertness. Literature describes that at least six factors are relevant for initiating effects beyond vision. The exact relationship between these factors and alertness is not yet fully understood. In the current field study, personal lighting conditions of 62 Dutch office workers (aged 49.7 ± 11.4 years) were continuously measured and simultaneously self-reported activities and locations during the day were gathered via diaries. Each office worker participated 10 working days in spring 2017. Personal lighting conditions were interpreted based on four of the six factors (light quantity, spectrum, timing, and duration of light exposure). Large individual differences were found for the daily luminous exposures, illuminances, correlated colour temperatures, and irradiances measured with the blue sensor area of the dosimeter. The average illuminance (over all participants and all days) over the course of the day peaked three times. The analysis of the duration of light exposure demonstrated that the participants were on average only exposed to an illuminance above 1000 lx for 72 minutes per day. The interpretation of personal lighting conditions based on the four factors provides essential information since all of these factors may be relevant for initiating effects beyond vision. The findings in the current paper give first in-depth insight in the possibilities to interpret personal lighting conditions of office workers.
MULTIFILE
Long-term care facilities are currently installing dynamic lighting systems with the aim to improve the well-being and behaviour of residents with dementia. The aim of this study was to investigate the implementation of dynamic lighting systems from the perspective of stakeholders and the performance of the technology. Therefore, a questionnaire survey was conducted with the management and care professionals of six care facilities. Moreover, light measurements were conducted in order to describe the exposure of residents to lighting. The results showed that the main reason for purchasing dynamic lighting systems lied in the assumption that the well-being and day/night rhythmicity of residents could be improved. The majority of care professionals were not aware of the reasons why dynamic lighting systems were installed. Despite positive subjective ratings of the dynamic lighting systems, no data were collected by the organizations to evaluate the effectiveness of the lighting. Although the care professionals stated that they did not see any large positive effects of the dynamic lighting systems on the residents and their own work situation, the majority appreciated the dynamic lighting systems more than the old situation. The light values measured in the care facilities did not exceed the minimum threshold values reported in the literature. Therefore, it seems illogical that the dynamic lighting systems installed in the researched care facilities will have any positive health effects.
Lighting accounts for a significant amount of electrical energy consumption in office buildings, up to 45% of the total consumed. This energy consumption can be reduced by as much as 60% through an occupant-dependent lighting control strategy. With particular focus on open-plan offices, where the application of this strategy is more challenging to apply due to differences in individual occupancy patterns, this paper covers (1) to which extent individual occupancy-based lighting control has been tested, (2) developed, and (3) evaluated. Search terms were defined with use of three categories, namely ‘occupancy patterns’, ‘lighting control strategy’, and ‘office’. Relevant articles were selected by a structured search through key online scientific databases and journals. The 24 studies identified as eligible were evaluated on six criteria: (1) study characteristics, (2) office characteristics, (3) lighting system characteristics, (4) lighting control design, (5) post-occupancy evaluation, and (6) conclusions, and this was used to answer the research questions. It was concluded that the strategy has not been tested yet with field studies in open-plan offices, but that it needs further development before it can be applied in these type of offices. Although lighting currently tends to be controlled at workspace level, many aspects of the strategy can be further developed; there is potential to further increase energy savings on lighting within open-plan office spaces. Individual occupancy-based lighting control requires further validation, focussing on the factors influencing its energy savings, on its cost effectiveness, and on its acceptability for users.
In this project, the AGM R&D team developed and refined the use of a facial scanning rig. The rig is a physical device comprising multiple cameras and lighting that are mounted on scaffolding around a 'scanning volume'. This is an area at which objects are placed before being photographed from multiple angles. The object is typically a person's head, but it can be anything of this approximate size. Software compares the photographs to create a digital 3D recreation - this process is called photogrammetry. The 3D model is then processed by further pieces of software and eventually becomes a face that can be animated inside in Unreal Engine, which is a popular piece of game development software made by the company Epic. This project was funded by Epic's 'Megagrant' system, and the focus of the work is on streamlining and automating the processing pipeline, and on improving the quality of the resulting output. Additional work has been done on skin shaders (simulating the quality of real skin in a digital form) and the use of AI to re/create lifelike hair styles. The R&D work has produced significant savings in regards to the processing time and the quality of facial scans, has produced a system that has benefitted the educational offering of BUas, and has attracted collaborators from the commercial entertainment/simulation industries. This work complements and extends previous work done on the VIBE project, where the focus was on creating lifelike human avatars for the medical industry.
