A lighting control system to optimize brightness distribution on working places

We are conducting research and development on an intelligent lighting system that can improve both workers´ comfort in an office and reduce electricity consumption of lighting. Upon introducing this system in an actual office, we were able to realize both an improvement in workers´ comfort and a drastic reduction in electricity consumption. Furthermore, in office lighting design of recent years, brightness design has become important in addition to illuminance design. In this paper, we propose a new lighting control system that realizes a brightness distribution within a worker´s field of vision that they find comfortable. A mechanism that considers brightness distribution in a worker´s field of vision has been added to the previous model of an intelligent lighting system that only controlled desk-surface illuminance. Experimental results indicated that target brightness distribution within a worker´s field of vision could be realized. It was also shown that, by having a system learn the brightness distribution a worker finds most comfortable, the targeted brightness distribution can be provided even when display brightness is changed during work.