A Development of a Lighting Control System Based on Context-Awareness for the Improvement of Learning Efficiency in Classroom

Abstract

LED lighting makes it possible to control precisely such elements as color tone (color temperature), intensity of illumination, etc. through various combinations of luminous sources and dimming steps, thus contributing to the colorful representation of lightings in harmony with the class atmospheres in a classroom. Existing LED-based classroom lighting systems too were designed to adjust color temperature and intensity of illumination, etc. for visual pleasantness and concentration of the teacher and students, but most of them are controlled manually, which causes inconvenience to users. To address this problem, it is necessary to develop an intelligent lighting control system that recognizes the locations and behaviors of the teacher and students automatically by means of sensors; grasps the current class context; and creates appropriate lighting environments accordingly. Thus, this study suggests a LED lighting control system based on context-awareness to grasp the current class context to create appropriate lighting environments in recognition of the locations and behaviors of the teacher and students by means of sensors. Based on existing research findings, a standard index for lighting illumination effective for concentration depending on the subjects is designed. LED lighting whose color temperature, intensity of illumination, and on/off switch are adjustable in addition to hybrid sensors for context-awareness is produced. Based on the learning schedule defined in advance and data collected through sensors, a context-awareness process is created to grasp the current class context. In addition, such elements as learning schedule, current class context, and lighting illumination are monitored real time on a user interface screen, or the lighting combination that the teacher desires is recreated with the learning schedule modifiable accordingly. Once a class context test-bed is established, the suggested system is applied according to the lighting control scenario. In the experiment to which the procedures above were applied, it turned out that all lighting factors for each scene of the scenario (color temperature, intensity of illumination) were well-matched with the index, and that the lighting condition was comfortable and effective for learning efficiency as it was in the comfortable range of Kruithof’s curve.