Describing the characteristics of light field in architectural spaces using spherical harmonic function

Abstract

Abstract The direction, density, and diffusivity of light are important indicators of spatial characteristics in describing a three-dimensional light environment. Mury presented a method for describing, measuring, and visualizing the structure of light fields using spherical harmonics in terms of changes in the density and direction of light in three-dimensional space. We extended this study by using higher-order spherical harmonics, which would represent more diverse characteristics of the light environment. We also quantitatively described the light environment as numerical values and investigated the correspondence between these numerical values and human perceptual quantities. As a result, we confirmed that there is a certain degree of correspondence between the “complexity” quantified by the spherical harmonic and the “complexity” perceived by people when observing real space.