Rytis Stanikūnas

Subjective evaluation of luminance distribution for intelligent outdoor lighting

A large number of physical dimensions and different criteria make choosing the optimal luminance distribution for outdoor lighting difficult. The optimisation becomes even more complex for light-emitting diode-based lighting installations that can be intelligently operated, providing different luminance distributions around a moving traffic participant. This study aims at establishing the main subjective factors for the assessment of the luminance distribution of an intelligent light-emitting diode-based outdoor lighting installation for pedestrians. Semantic-differential scales and Likert scales have been used to identify subjective impressions and to find the main factors for the optimisation of the control of the luminance distribution. Our results reveal two factors that need to be considered when assessing intelligent outdoor lighting installations: a major factor that is related to the subjective feeling of well-being and a minor factor that is related to the physical properties of the environment.

LED-based metameric light sources: Rendering the colours of objects and other colour quality criteria

Solid-state white light sources based on multiple light emitting diodes (LEDs) have three features that make them radically different from other sources of electrically generated light. These are the narrowband spectra of the individual LEDs, the possibility of controlling the light output of the individual LEDs and the limited stability of the LED’s colour. These features make it possible to achieve a set of solid-state white light sources that are metameric to a selected reference light source. A computational method to optimise the intensities of narrowband LEDs to obtain these metameric light sources is proposed. The appearance of object colours under these metameric light sources differs and can be used to satisfy users’ requests according to the various aspects of colour quality required, without altering the visual appearance of the light source.

Energy-saving approaches to solid state street lighting

We consider the energy-saving potential of solid-state street lighting due to improved visual performance, weather sensitive luminance control and tracking of pedestrians and vehicles. A psychophysical experiment on the measurement of reaction time with a decision making task was performed under mesopic levels of illumination provided by a highpressure sodium (HPS) lamp and different solid-state light sources, such as daylight and warm-white phosphor converted light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and red-green-blue LED clusters. The results of the experiment imply that photopic luminances of road surface provided by solid-state light sources with an optimized spectral power distribution might be up to twice as low as those provided by the HPS lamp. Dynamical correction of road luminance against road surface conditions typical of Lithuanian climate was estimated to save about 20% of energy in comparison with constant-level illumination. The estimated energy savings due to the tracking of pedestrians and vehicles amount at least 25% with the cumulative effect of intelligent control of at least 40%. A solid-state street lighting system with intelligent control was demonstrated using a 300 m long test ground consisting of 10 solid-state street luminaires, a meteorological station and microwave motion sensor network operated via power line communication.

Neural Network for Color Constancy

Color constancy is the perceived stability of the color of objects under different illuminants. Four-layer neural network for color constancy has been developed. It has separate input channels for the test chip and for the background. Input of network was RGB receptors. Second layer consisted of color opponent cells and output have three neurons signaling x, y, Y coordinates (1931 CIE). Network was trained with the back-propagation algorithm. For training and testing we used nine illuminants with wide spectrum. Neural network was able to achieve color constancy. Input of background coordinates and nonlinearity of network have crucial influence for training.

SUVOKIAMO ATKARPOS ILGIO PRIKLAUSOMYBĖ NUO JOS ATVAIZDO VIETOS AKIES TINKLAINĖJE

Tyrimo tikslas yra patikrinti, kaip keiciasi objekto dydžio suvokimas, kintant jo projekcijos padėciai akies tinklainėje, ir kaip objekto dydžio suvokimas priklauso nuo akies tinklainės receptorių (kūgelių ir lazdelių) tankio. Tiriamieji, žiūrėdami viena akimi ir fiksuodami žvilgsnį, dalijo skirtingų ilgių atkarpas – nustatydavo suvokiamą vidurį. Atkarpos dalių santykio nuo atkarpos ilgio funkcija turėjo lūžio taską (66,7 proc. tiriamiesiems, kai atkarpos ilgis 7 laipsniai, 23,33 proc. – 13 laipsnių, kiti neturėjo). Rezultatai aiskinami skirtingu kūgelių ir lazdelių tankiu akies tinklainėje ir skirtinga kūgelių ir lazdelių įtaka. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: dydžio suvokimas, žievinis didinimo veiksnys, fotoreceptorių tankis. Perceived Size of a Line Depending on Its Projection Place on the Retina Dzekeviciūtė A., Daugirdienė A., Svegžda A., Stanikūnas R., Vaitkevicius H. Summary It is known that objects located in the centre of the visual field are perceived as larger than the objects located in the periphery (Пиаже, 1978). The image of an object differs from its perception object. The perceived size of an object depends on the size of its image in the visual cortex. This stems from the so-called cortical magnification factor. It is assumed that the same quantity of receptors sends information to the same area of the cortex. But photoreceptors are different – rods and the cones. It is not clear whether the different type of receptors make a different influence on the above-mentioned distortion of mapping. Also, the image of the object on the retina is perceived differently, depending on its location on the retina. Our goal was to explore how this subjective expansion changes while moving away from the centre of the retina, because there are no data on this, phenomenon. Method. Thirty normal or corrected to normal vision adults participated in the study. Five different length lines (5, 7, 10, 13, 15 degrees) were represented on the computer’s monitor one line at a time. Participants had monoculary bisected lines into two subjectively equal parts fixating sight on a cross located at the given end of the line. Results. The ratio ρ (length of the line near the cross / length of the other part) was calculated. This ratio as a function of the length of the whole line was not monotonic: when the line was short, ρ decreased, but then it began to increase. Three groups of results were formed considering the ratio of the line length (where the function had the extremum point). The largest group (66.67%) had the extremum point when the line length was 7 deg. The second group (23.33%) had the extremum point when the line length was 13 deg. The last group (10%) had not clear extremum point and was excluded from the calculation. Changes of the ρ value cannot be explained by the perceptual instability of the length of the line (Brown, 1953). There could be a correlation between the value of ρ and the density of all receptors in the retina where the line was projected. Conclusions. Humans make a bias while monocular by bisecting a line: the part near the point of fixation is perceived as bigger than the other part. The function of the line size ratio changes not monotonically – it has an extremum point. Most often, the extremum point is observed when the line size is 7 deg. This point is near the point where the density of rods exceeds that of cones. Other subjects show the extremum point when line size is 13 deg., but the reasons for such a point shift remain unclear. Some subjects have no extremum point. Key words: size perception, cortical magnification factor, density of photoreceptors.