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Interior Lighting pp 57–87Cite as

Visual Performance

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Abstract

Visual performance for tasks of different size and contrast as a function of background luminance provides information about what lighting levels in interior working situations are required as a minimum. Visual performance has been studied as threshold and suprathreshold performance. For easy to moderately difficult tasks, as occurring in many offices, it is shown that visual performance is not a key issue for determining what lighting level is required. In situations with more difficult visual tasks, visual performance becomes an issue. With the described RVP model, calculation of relative performance for actual tasks gives insight into required lighting levels. Visual performance of older workers deteriorates considerably, and their performance should always become a consideration in setting lighting levels.

Disability glare, the form of glare that is responsible for a negative influence on visual performance, has a neglectable effect on visual performance under most interior lighting conditions.

The spectrum of light influences the threshold performance measure of visual acuity through its effect on the size of the pupil. A method that compares different spectra regarding the efficiency of providing visual acuity is described. Under many working conditions, however, this is of limited relevance since most of the visual tasks are far above the threshold of visibility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Van Bommel Lighting Consultant, Nuenen, Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands

    Wout van Bommel

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  1. Wout van Bommel
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van Bommel, W. (2019). Visual Performance. In: Interior Lighting. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17195-7_3

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