Affective ambiences created with lighting for older people

Abstract

Current lighting technologies provide huge flexibility in creating ambiences that may be adapted to the needs of an occupant in a room. These ambiences not only satisfy visual needs, but may also improve people's well-being. This paper describes one possible application of adaptable light ambiences, namely to counteract negative mood states that older people often experience in care centres. To this end, we wanted to create a pleasant, relaxing ambience to counteract anxiousness and a pleasant, activating ambience to counteract sadness. We asked 15 (relatively young) lighting designers to create these ambiences and averaged their input to create both ambiences in a real room. Subsequently, these ambiences were evaluated with the Atmosphere questionnaire by younger and older participants. The affective connotation of the ambiences in terms of the Atmosphere dimensions was well recognized by the younger participants but significantly less so by the older people. Hence, a photo interview with older people was used to make the ambiences more appropriate for them. A final validation experiment confirmed that the affective connotation of these new ambiences was well recognized by the older people.

Lighting to Make You Feel Better: Improving the Mood of Elderly People with Affective Ambiences

“…Alternatively, atmosphere may be evaluated in terms of valence and arousal [ 44 , 45 ]. The relation between both characterizations of atmosphere is that coziness was found to be positively correlated with positive valence and negatively correlated with arousal, while liveliness was found to be positively correlated with both valence and arousal [ 12 ]. Extensive knowledge has been built up about the influence of lighting characteristics on atmosphere perception [ 12 , 13 , 43 , 46 ].…”

“…The relation between both characterizations of atmosphere is that coziness was found to be positively correlated with positive valence and negatively correlated with arousal, while liveliness was found to be positively correlated with both valence and arousal [ 12 ]. Extensive knowledge has been built up about the influence of lighting characteristics on atmosphere perception [ 12 , 13 , 43 , 46 ]. The combination of general white lighting with colored accent lighting is known to be able to generate cozy, activating and exciting atmospheres in a room for younger people [ 12 , 47 ].…”

“…In addition, previous literature has shown that it is possible to use lighting to create ambiences whose affective connotation (also referred to as atmosphere [ 11 ], e.g. cozy or activating ) can be clearly recognized by people [ 12 , 13 ]. This perceived affect may in turn impact the mood of the room's occupant.…”

“…anxiety (negative valence and high arousal) and sadness (negative valence and low arousal) [ 3 , 4 ]. To do so, we resort to two affective ambiences, with an associated (and found to be recognized by elderly [ 12 ]) relaxing and activating atmosphere, respectively. These ambiences are created with the combination of general white lighting, varying in illuminance and color temperature, and colored accent lighting.…”

Modulation of the Intensity of the Spectral Components of Polychromatic Light within Certain Regions in Space by Passive Methods by Strategically Using Material Optical Properties and Texture

“…Light, defined as electromagnetic radiation to which the human retina is sensitive [1], has been studied as part of architectural environments to provide visual comfort and to improve human mood and alertness [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Today, there is an effort to differentiate "visual lighting levels" from "biological lighting levels" [8], and a need to understand human physiological and behavioral responses to electromagnetic radiation [9][10][11][12], because light entering the eye does not only serve vision, but also our circadian system [13][14][15].…”