Considering Luminance In-situ in Building Interiors Using Innovative Mobile Phone App: Exploratory Study in USA and Australia

The people world over enjoys theatres, museums, food service and hair salons etc. A key design element in all architectural interiors is lighting. Architectural lighting is a complex field. Older adults need more light, but are sensitive to glare. Glare is caused by excessive luminance or contrast. Luminance on the other hand, is the intensity of emitted light, and cd/m2 is its unit of measure.
Although many studies measuring Illuminance exist, research measuring interior building luminance however, has not been widely published. Hence, there is a critical need to: understand the vision challenges facing older adults as confounded by lighting; explore luminance in different building types; quantify levels; visually communicate plots in false colour. This study begins to fill a gap in the literature.
This exploratory study tackles luminance in in two countries. A convenience sample of six various building interiors were visited in the USA, and Australia. Objectives: Use smart phones and innovative free app to photo-document Interior scenes; capture images of luminance in false colour; record luminance quantities. A number of 87 digital photographs, and false colour image luminance plots were captured. The luminance ranged from 0.49 to 316.36 cp/m². The results were compared to 100 cd/m² lower boundary for adequate light prescribed for tasks, and 84 measurements (96.56%) did not comply. The measurements taken demonstrated high contrast. While taking measurements, bare bulbs and large windows contributed to glare. Such an app could potentially aid in assessing interior properties for the general population, but also for the ageing contingent within it.