Light and human factor (vision and visual comfort)

Different research fields are currently developed for what concerns the ergonomics of lighting and visual comfort through the evaluation of glare phenomena due to daylighting for traditional and innovative daylighting systems (field measurement with a calibrated Image Luminance Measurement Device ILMD) and validation of existing and new daylight glare indexes (application of recently developed tool - Evalglare).

Other research activities concern the man-machine interface visibility and the assessment of luminous environmental quality for different application areas.

The research program is meant to contribute to:

• define protocols for assessing visibility of cockpit displays. Visibility is assessed through experimental activities, by means of luminance images taken within real vehicle/aircraft cockpits under different critical conditions (sun forward, sun rear, sun dusk, night light). Routines in MatLab are developed to analyze the luminance images and to calculate legibility performance indices (contrast, glare, luminance balance…), with the aim of applying existing metrics as well as to define new indices;
• analyze of luminous environmental quality in non residential buildings, by means of experimental field campaigns out aimed at analyzing how the lighting conditions can actually influence user psychological acceptance, comfort and performance for people. The analysis relies on both field measurements and to questionnaires to identify critical conditions of discomfort or of non-compliance with standards and to define solution and correction strategies.