Scaling of Discomfort Sensations in the Conditions of Performing Office Visual Tasks

Abstract

Currently, computer graphics programs (CG) as a tool for designing lighting installations allows us to move to a fundamentally new approach to assessing the quality of lighting: to move away from designing based on illuminance values to designing based on synthetic images or lighting design. Modern CG programs allow us to calculate the spatial-angular distribution of luminance (SADL). Still, some criterion is needed for the assessment, which will allow us to uniquely determine the quality of lighting in terms of luminance distribution. In this paper, we consider constructing a physiological model of the visual sense scale for assessing the quality of lighting according to SADL based on an experiment to assess visual sense from the luminance of a light source in the field of view on a uniform background with different luminance. As a result of the work done, it is proposed to use a scale of sensations in the form of a certain space. The axis of space is the threshold contrast for the resulting sense of discomfort, depending on the observation conditions. All other sensations are separated from the axis at some distance. Threshold contrasts, at which visual sensations arise within the framework of the proposed scale, can be used in the future to assess the storm in the lighting scene using a new criterion and will allow analysing the quality of lighting using CG methods.