Eye-strain in hybrid spaces
Do you design in or design out asthenopia (‘eye strain’) into your hybrid spaces when specifying displays - especially next-gen spaces like the MTR Enhanced Meeting Rooms (EMRs)?
This 100% essential step in the AV designer and consultant’s workflow is so easy - but usually overlooked.
Our eyes are effectively cameras that feed video signal into our visual processing system. They are mechanical devices. The ciliary muscle continually expands and contracts to adjust the lens thickness to focus and the pupil aperture to control the amount of light striking the retina. Working it too hard creates asthenopia, namely eye strain.
In my lighting practice, our professional body is CIBSE, whose Lighting Guides are our bibles (it’s the IES in the US). Factoring asthenopia is a process whereby all surfaces/objects and a space are designed to fall within a defined range of luminances (‘brightness’).
The critical lighting metric for AV designers is Task Luminance Ratio (‘task’ referring to the object we see at a given moment). Continually glancing from dark to light objects (‘tasks’) gives your eyes a workout - one made extreme and tiring if the difference in objects’ brightness is too much.
By limiting Task Luminance Ratio to 3:1, it’s possible to create environments where people can work for extended periods without that fatigue. I use 2.5:1 to provide some tolerance.
This simple spreadsheet takes 10 seconds to use. The white paper on your desk is the datum used.
By breaking the space down into the right granular topics, radical improvements can be made - before you spend a penny on the technology. I work with my consulting clients in this way, through the lens of the users’ needs.
Read my White Paper here.
Posted: 14th September 2022