Human-Centric Lighting: Foundational Considerations and a Five-Step Design Process.

Kevin W Houser,Tony Esposito

doi:10.3389/fneur.2021.630553

Abstract

At its best, human-centric lighting considers the visual and non-visual effects of light in support of positive human outcomes. At its worst, it is a marketing phrase used to healthwash lighting products or lighting design solutions. There is no doubt that environmental lighting contributes to human health, but how might one practice human-centric lighting given both the credible potential and the implausible hype? Marketing literature is filled with promises. Technical lighting societies have summarized the science but have not yet offered design guidance. Meanwhile, designers are in the middle, attempting to distinguish credible knowledge from that which is dubious to make design decisions that affect people directly. This article is intended to: (1) empower the reader with fundamental understandings of ways in which light affects health; (2) provide a process for human-centric lighting design that can dovetail with the decision-making process that is already a part of a designer's workflow.

Highlights

Human-centric lighting is an idiom intended to describe lighting solutions that considers the traditional elements of lighting quality that are rooted in human vision while simultaneously incorporating new insights about the non-visual effects of light
That manuscript describes a range of visual and non-visual responses and the eye-brain pathways that drive them, outlines the agreed upon science that can inform the practice of human-centric lighting, and offers general guidance for the practice of human-centric lighting
That work asserts that human-centric lighting, called integrative lighting [2, 3], is not a product feature, and that lighting products that claim to improve sleep or performance should be met with skepticism

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Human-centric lighting is an idiom intended to describe lighting solutions that considers the traditional elements of lighting quality that are rooted in human vision while simultaneously incorporating new insights about the non-visual effects of light. Of the various non-visual responses to light, alertness [48, 49], melatonin suppression [50, 51], and circadian phase shifting [51, 52] have been most extensively studied, mostly in laboratory settings. The CS targets in UL 24480 [10] are based on research that characterizes acute melatonin suppression after a 1-h exposure to light, yet compliance with the UL standard requires a minimum of a 2h exposure of CS > 0.30 between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., and is intended to support a broad range of health outcomes for all day-shift workers. While laboratory studies have demonstrated the capacity and potential of light to influence non-visual outcomes, more field studies are needed to understand the veracity of the effects in real-world settings

A FIVE-STEP DESIGN PROCESS FOR HUMAN-CENTRIC LIGHTING

Findings

CONCLUSIONS