Preliminary evaluation of discomfort glare from organic light-emitting diode and edge-lit light-emitting diode lighting panels.

Abstract

The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is an area light source, and its primary competing technology is the edge-lit light-emitting diode (LED) panel. Both technologies are similar in shape and appearance, but there is little understanding of how people perceive discomfort glare (DG) from area sources. The objective of this study was to evaluate the DG of these two technologies under similar operating conditions. Additionally, two existing DG models were compared to evaluate the correlation between predicted values and observed values. In an earlier study, we found no statistically significant difference in human response in terms of DG between OLED and edge-lit LED panels when the two sources produced the same luminous stimulus. The range of testing stimulus was expanded to test different panel luminances at three background illuminations. The results showed no difference in perceived glare between the panels, and, as the background illumination increased, the perceived glare decreased. In other words, both appeared equally glary beyond a certain luminance and background illumination. We then compared two existing glare models with the observed values and found that one model showed a good estimation of how humans perceive DG. That model was further modified to increase its power.