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Effects of different ambient environments on human responses and work performance

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Abstract

The increasing concern on intelligent lighting designs for better life quality calls for the studies on thermal lighting environments. Given this background, this study investigated the effects of various ambient environmental settings on the physiological responses, psychological responses and work performance of subjects. A total of eight male university students performed a non-work task (30 min) and a work task (60 min) in various thermal lighting environments. The experimental conditions included a combination of five correlated colour temperatures (CCT) and two indoor temperatures (Temp). The galvanic skin response, heart rate, skin temperature, subjective evaluations and work performance were measured. The results showed that the ambient environments of CCT5000 and CCT6500 °K at 30 °C and CCT4000 °K at 28 °C significantly affected subjects’ physiology and psychology in both work and non-work tasks. The future lighting environment designs may refer these findings of the present study.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted to all the subjects that generously gave their time and effort for the experiments. We would like to acknowledge the grant support from the Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). The Li-Wen Wang received her MS degree from Yuan Ze University. This study was inspired by Li-Wen Wang’s master thesis. The authors would like to thankful Li-Wen Wang, to finish the experiment. The authors would like to thank Chen-Ju Lin for helpful Statistical Analysis suggestions. The authors would also like to thank Jinghong Xiong, at the Graduate School of Design, Kyushu University, Japan, for his valuable suggestions in writing of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Yuan Ze University, 135 Yuan-Tung Road, Chung-Li, 32002, Taiwan

    Chinmei Chou & Ruyu Huang

  2. Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National Central University, No. 300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli, 32001, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    Chien-Chun Lu

  3. Industrial Technology Research Institute, 195, Sec. 4, Chung Hsing Rd., Chutung, 31040, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    Chien-Chun Lu

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  1. Chinmei Chou
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Correspondence to Chinmei Chou.

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Chou, C., Lu, CC. & Huang, R. Effects of different ambient environments on human responses and work performance. J Ambient Intell Human Comput 7, 865–874 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-016-0393-0

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