Multi-channel LED luminaires offer a powerful tool to vary retinal receptor signals while keeping visual parameters such as color or brightness perception constant. This technology could provide new fields of application in indoor lighting since the spectrum can be enhanced individually to the users' favor or task. One possible application would be to optimize a light spectrum by using the pupil diameter as a parameter to increase the visual acuity. A spectral-and time-dependent pupil model is the key requirement for this aim. We benchmarked in our work selected Land M-cone based pupil models to find the estimation error in predicting the pupil diameter for chromatic and polychromatic spectra at 100 cd/m 2. We report an increased estimation error up to 1.21 mm for 450 nm at 60-300 s exposure time. At short exposure times, the pupil diameter was approximately independent of the used spectrum, allowing to use the luminance for a pupil model. Polychromatic spectra along the Planckian locus showed at 60-300 s exposure time, a prediction error within a tolerance range of ± 0.5 mm. The time dependency seems to be more essential than the spectral dependency when using polychromatic spectra. The pupil aperture is an essential factor in photometric and visual investigations because of its direct influence on both retinal illumination and the retinal image quality 1. A smaller pupil diameter can ensure a larger depth of field 2 and achieve a decrease of optical aberrations 3,4 , which has positive effects on the visual acuity of the eye 4,5. Visual acuity is relevant in the interior lighting of workplaces or production facilities since an enhanced visual performance leads to fewer accidents or human injuries 6. Various studies have shown that the optimal pupil diameter is approximately between two and three millimeters for visual tasks in the photopic luminance range 1,4,7-11. With today's technology of multi-channel LED luminaires, it is possible to optimize artificial light spectra to influence the pupil aperture, color perception, brightness perception or other lighting metrics 12,13. The number of narrow-band light-emitting diodes in such a system determines the degree of freedom, which allows keeping specific parameters constant while changing others. The first step to actively optimize the pupil aperture through illumination without influencing other image-forming vision parameters such as brightness or color perception is the construction of an accurate model which predicts the spectral and time-dependent pupil diameter. Such a model can be used in a heuristic or gradient-based optimization procedure as an objective or constraint function to design the desired light spectrum for visual tasks. Eight empirical models are proposed in the literature with different dependent parameters and test conditions. The most famous models are from Holladay 14 , Crawford 15 , Moon and Spencer 16 , De Groot and Gebhard 17 , Stanley and Davies 18 , Barten 19 and Blackie and Howland 20. In 2012, Watson and Yellot 21 reviewed these pup...

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Additional signaling devices for highly automated vehicles (AVs) that can communicate their driving state to other road users can simplify the integration process in existing road traffic. This paper presents the results of an international, virtual reality-based study conducted in China, South Korea and the USA in which subjects assume the role of a pedestrian and are placed in direct encounter situations with an AV in a parking lot. A novel communication interface consisting of three displays is attached to the AV's front and used to show additional information about its driving state. In total, three encounter scenarios are investigated: the AV approaches from the left, front and right outside of the pedestrian's line of sight. The influence of different symbol types on the subject's moving behavior, recognition of intention and perceived safety is investigated. The results show that additional signals ensure a better perception of the AV's intention and increase the perceived safety. The moving behavior of subjects is significantly changed when additional signals are used during driving tasks compared to the same tasks without such signals. The change of moving behaviour is similar in encounter situations where the AV approaches from the left and front but differs in encounter situations from the right. These results could equally be proven for all nationalities, which shows that a uniform, international solution for additional signaling devices of highly automated vehicles is possible.

Modern indoor lighting faces the challenge of finding an appropriate balance between energy consumption, legal requirements, visual performance, and the circadian effectiveness of a spectrum. Multi-channel LED luminaires have the option of keeping image-forming metrics steady while varying the melanopic radiance through metamer spectra for non-visual purposes. Here, we propose the theoretical concept of an automated smart lighting system that is designed to satisfy the user’s visual preference through neural networks while triggering the non-visual pathway via metamers. To quantify the melanopic limits of metamers at a steady chromaticity point, we have used 561 chromaticity coordinates along the Planckian locus (2700 K to 7443 K, ±Duv 0 to 0.048) as optimisation targets and generated the spectra by using a 6-channel, 8-channel, and 11-channel LED combination at three different luminance levels. We have found that in a best-case scenario, the melanopic radiance can be varied up to 65% while keeping the chromaticity coordinates constant (Δu′v′≤7.05×10−5) by using metamer spectra. The highest melanopic metamer contrast can be reached near the Planckian locus between 3292 and 4717 K within a Duv range of −0.009 to 0.006. Additionally, we publish over 1.2 million optimised spectra generated by multichannel LED luminaires as an open-source dataset along with this work.

Although research has made significant findings in the neurophysiological process behind the pupillary light reflex, the temporal prediction of the pupil diameter triggered by polychromatic or chromatic stimulus spectra is still not possible. State of the art pupil models rested in estimating a static diameter at the equilibrium-state for spectra along the Planckian locus. Neither the temporal receptor-weighting nor the spectral-dependent adaptation behaviour of the afferent pupil control path is mapped in such functions. Here we propose a deep learning-driven concept of a pupil model, which reconstructs the pupil’s time course either from photometric and colourimetric or receptor-based stimulus quantities. By merging feed-forward neural networks with a biomechanical differential equation, we predict the temporal pupil light response with a mean absolute error below 0.1 mm from polychromatic (2007 $$\pm$$ ± 1 K, 4983 $$\pm$$ ± 3 K, 10,138 $$\pm$$ ± 22 K) and chromatic spectra (450 nm, 530 nm, 610 nm, 660 nm) at 100.01 ± 0.25 cd/m2. This non-parametric and self-learning concept could open the door to a generalized description of the pupil behaviour.

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Smart integrative lighting systems aim to support human health and wellbeing by capitalising on the light-induced effects on circadian rhythms, sleep, and cognitive functions, while optimising the light’s visual aspects like colour fidelity, visual comfort, visual preference, and visibility. Metameric spectral tuning could be an instrument to solve potential conflicts between the visual preferences of users with respect to illuminance and chromaticity and the circadian consequences of the light exposure, as metamers can selectively modulate melanopsin-based photoreception without affecting visual properties such as chromaticity or illuminance. This work uses a 6-, 8- and 11-channel LED luminaire with fixed illuminance of 250 lx to systematically investigate the metameric tuning range in melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance (EDI) and melanopic daylight efficacy ratio (melanopic DER) for 561 chromaticity coordinates as optimisation targets (2700 K to 7443 K ± Duv 0 to 0.048), while applying colour fidelity index Rf criteria from the TM-30-20 Annex E recommendations (i.e. Rf$$\ge$$ ≥ 85, Rf,h1$$\ge$$ ≥ 85). Our results reveal that the melanopic tuning range increases with rising CCT to a maximum tuning range in melanopic DER of 0.24 (CCT: 6702 K, Duv: 0.003), 0.29 (CCT: 7443 K, Duv: 0) and 0.30 (CCT: 6702, Duv: 0.006), depending on the luminaire’s channel number of 6, 8 or 11, respectively. This allows to vary the melanopic EDI from 212.5–227.5 lx up to 275–300 lx without changes in the photopic illuminance (250 lx) or chromaticity ($$\Delta u'v'$$ Δ u ′ v ′ $$\le$$ ≤ 0.0014). The highest metameric melanopic Michelson contrast for the 6-, 8- and 11-channel luminaire is 0.16, 0.18 and 0.18, which is accomplished at a CCT of 3017 K (Duv: − 0.018), 3456 K (Duv: 0.009) and 3456 K (Duv: 0.009), respectively. By optimising ~ 490,000 multi-channel LED spectra, we identified chromaticity regions in the CIExy colour space that are of particular interest to control the melanopic efficacy with metameric spectral tuning.

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