BACKGROUND 2009
APPROACH
While attending San Jose State University's master's program in Human Factors & Ergonomics, I was looking for a topic for my thesis research. I was also working at Cisco, so I started to look for a product that had some real-world research questions. One group was working on a new product concept, which was bringing telepresence into the home living room. This was later released as the Cisco Umi. At the time, a big question was whether the home telepresence unit should have a fill light, as you see in all the corporate telepresence rooms. We knew that lighting in home living rooms varied widely from home to home, and changed throughout the day. A supplemental fill light might be necessary, but would this cause glare and bother people?
APPROACH
This research investigated whether the amount of telepresence fill light required for a well-lit appearance was enough to cause discomfort glare. To conduct the research, I setup lighting in two telepresence rooms that were decorated to look like a home living room. I created adjustable fill lights that were controlled by dimmer switches on a control box. I also had to invent a mechanism for measuring the light output by monitoring voltage. Thirty participants were recruited for the study. They adjusted the output of two fill lights, one in front of them (focusing on discomfort), and one in front of the remote telepresence user (focusing on appearance). Ambient light levels (48-71 lux, 118-130 lux, 269-281 lux) and fill-light positions (top of display, 30.5 cm higher) were varied.
RESULTS
RESULTS
For all conditions, the amount of light required to produce a pleasing portrayal was greater than the point of discomfort. The mean discomfort threshold was the same for all ambient light conditions (663.46 cd/m2, 8.44 lux at 2.44 m). The amount of light that produced a well-lit appearance was about the same for dim and moderate ambient light (3,348.65 cd/m2, 51.61 lux at 2.44 m), but lower for bright (1,204.47 cd/m2, 17.81 lux at 2.44 m). Raising the light did not affect discomfort, but did require more light for a well-lit portrayal. Technology providers should consider collocating the fill light with the display, limiting its luminance to 663.46 cd/m2 for low-light environments similar to this research, and raising or lowering that limit as the background luminance changes.
SJSU Master's Thesis - 153 pages, PDF
Beno, James P., "Effects of telepresence light height and ambient light on glare and appearance" (2009). Master's Theses. Paper 3688.
This is the product I did the TelePresence lighting research on. When it was in its early stages of development, a key question was whether it should have a fill light or not. Ultimately a light was not included, primarily because of the additional complexity and glare it can cause. However, the home environment can still benefit from some type of lighting arrangement. It is rare for the actual users to look like those in the marketing image.
I published and presented my research at the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society 53rd Annual Meeting in 2009. The following images show slides from the main presentation. Links to the published paper, and my master's thesis, are above.
