Lighting Flows
Insights
In order to get a better understanding about the relationship between light and human behavior I did a field observation in the city center of Eindhoven during the night and I captured my findings in a video recording.
The video showed patterns of people gathering together around lit areas and some “synchronization” of movements guided by lit paths. This is the reason why the focus on Social Networks turned to be an attractive research topic for this project to all the stakeholders.
Research
Further information has been gathered to investigate Social Networks theories in details and filtered out to detect the topics that potentially could be part/base of the hypothesis.
Network science provided a multidisciplinary research field where I could find exciting connections and applications between several scientific topics like artificial-computer networks and biological networks.
I applied the methodology of examine decentralized self-organized groups (such as bugs, birds, fishes, etc.) to the steering behavior of the human group in relation to light conditions.
Experiment
In order to identify the specific light effects which can trigger specific steering behavior (e.g.: alignment in a pattern or distance between the individuals) I set up an ‘active experiment’. During the experiment I was monitoring the participants and tested as many effects as possible in the hope of instant behavioral changes.
With this setup I intended to prove and specify connections between light and behavior without repeating the experiment over and over again.
Demo
A demonstrator prototype for the exhibition at the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e) was designed to present the results of the research and the experiment. With this demonstrator tool the experience of a reactive environmental lighting system was introduced which would recognize the crowd patterns and support their natural behavior by adapting to them.
In order to get a better understanding about the relationship between light and human behavior I did a field observation in the city center of Eindhoven during the night and I captured my findings in a video recording.
The video showed patterns of people gathering together around lit areas and some “synchronization” of movements guided by lit paths. This is the reason why the focus on Social Networks turned to be an attractive research topic for this project to all the stakeholders.
Research
Further information has been gathered to investigate Social Networks theories in details and filtered out to detect the topics that potentially could be part/base of the hypothesis.
Network science provided a multidisciplinary research field where I could find exciting connections and applications between several scientific topics like artificial-computer networks and biological networks.
I applied the methodology of examine decentralized self-organized groups (such as bugs, birds, fishes, etc.) to the steering behavior of the human group in relation to light conditions.
Experiment
In order to identify the specific light effects which can trigger specific steering behavior (e.g.: alignment in a pattern or distance between the individuals) I set up an ‘active experiment’. During the experiment I was monitoring the participants and tested as many effects as possible in the hope of instant behavioral changes.
With this setup I intended to prove and specify connections between light and behavior without repeating the experiment over and over again.
Demo
A demonstrator prototype for the exhibition at the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e) was designed to present the results of the research and the experiment. With this demonstrator tool the experience of a reactive environmental lighting system was introduced which would recognize the crowd patterns and support their natural behavior by adapting to them.
Insights
This video shows several aspects of urban lights and different everyday moments in people’s lives on a nice autumn evening. What I was able to capture and communicate with the series of small video segments was a social aspect of lights at night. People meet and hang out in the city, and these hang-out places, parks, benches, terraces of restaurants or the stairs of the church are all lit with different quality of static and dynamic lights.Light has a strong social power, it can invite and bring people together and it can scare people away from places. The light itself is obviously not enough to create such social effect but can make a major difference in the usage of any public furniture or object at nighttime.
The public lights ‘reflect’ on the city and the people who are living in it. Every city has its own urban landscape (identity) at night and shows how much the locals care about their environment, how they are using the differently lid spaces.
The dynamic changes of the city by the traffic, traffic lights, movements of the people tells the city is alive by its lights.
C. C. Trowbridge: On the origin of the flocking habit of migratory birds.
Research
My initial intention was to trigger people’s natural behaviors. I found it interesting to target the subconscious behaviors of humans which can be similar as the flocking and synchronizing behaviors in nature.Hypothesis: when people move in space they react to each other and to their environment; if the environment changes the reactions to each other would change as well.
My expectations after the research was I can align this hypothesis to other network behavior phenomenas like flocking behavior of animals, and I can clearly define light effects which can influence specific steering behavior in the group. (For instance switching off the light would results no networking effect)
Findings I planned to implement into my experiment:
A: monitor: night vision camera connected to a screen [F] outside providing live view even in lower light conditions (including recording the experiment)
B: participants: 8 enthusiastic ID student (random social relations) - they were asked not to stay in one place in the room during the experiment (to see the ‘flocking’ patterns not the standing patterns)
time: 10 minutes
C: light sources: 60W light bulbs with paper filters to diffuse the light in space (x6)
D: environment: black-box (dedicated room for light experiments and presentations)
E: control: manual dimmers attached to the power plugs - individually to the lamps
B: participants: 8 enthusiastic ID student (random social relations) - they were asked not to stay in one place in the room during the experiment (to see the ‘flocking’ patterns not the standing patterns)
time: 10 minutes
C: light sources: 60W light bulbs with paper filters to diffuse the light in space (x6)
D: environment: black-box (dedicated room for light experiments and presentations)
E: control: manual dimmers attached to the power plugs - individually to the lamps
Experiment
II. By changing the speed of the light pulses the average speed of the group changed as well which results the faster pulses faster walking and slower pulses slower walking during the experiment. (see in the video - 6.3.1)
III. By modifying the amplitude of the pulses the group can either align in a circular walking pattern or break the aligned-walking depends on the combination with light intensity and speed. So in higher light intensity with low amplitude pulses the group align in a circular pattern (fig. 6.3.1) and in medium light intensity with high amplitude pulses the group divide in subgroups and their movement are not clearly recognizable geometric pattern.
A - infrared network camera
B - walking path
C - network rooter
D - PC running Processing
E - Arduino microcontroller with DMX shield
F - DMX dimmer pack
G - light source: small industrial lamps (400W)
H - directions of the human flow
B - walking path
C - network rooter
D - PC running Processing
E - Arduino microcontroller with DMX shield
F - DMX dimmer pack
G - light source: small industrial lamps (400W)
H - directions of the human flow
Demo
possible opportunities for prospect developments
I see potential in an adjustable, modular infrastructure where the modules (integrated sensors and light sources) can be arranged regarding to the existing environment. In that way the system would support the development or replacement of the sensors and actuators. Based on the long-term, better understanding of the measured data of the peoples activity in different light conditions, the system would learn further what light effects would be supportive for the people who are actually using the space.
full project report available: http://issuu.com/grotandthemob/docs/tom_fejer_lighting_flow_2012_c
I see potential in an adjustable, modular infrastructure where the modules (integrated sensors and light sources) can be arranged regarding to the existing environment. In that way the system would support the development or replacement of the sensors and actuators. Based on the long-term, better understanding of the measured data of the peoples activity in different light conditions, the system would learn further what light effects would be supportive for the people who are actually using the space.
full project report available: http://issuu.com/grotandthemob/docs/tom_fejer_lighting_flow_2012_c
