The Impact of Lighting Simulation Discrepancies on Human Visual Perception and Energy Behavior Simulations in Immersive Virtual Environment

A clear better understanding of occupancy behaviors in built environments is a salient criterion that can help in satisfying building performance. In fact, even the most carefully validated simulations have discrepancies from reality. The purpose of this study is to establish a procedure for evaluating the impact of discrepancies between lighting simulations in immersive virtual environment (IVE) and actual lighting conditions on human subjects’ visual perception in IVE. To that end, an IVE which is aggregated with lighting simulation software, namely RADIANCE, will be developed with similar lighting in working spaces and in-situ. The perceived qualitative features (e.g. illuminance levels, color, and glare) of the lighting and sensation will be measured by using a subjective method and the difference of illuminance between the IVE and in-situ setting will account for the aforementioned discrepancies across the two experimental settings. In the long run, this study aims at determining the extent to which these discrepancies will impact occupant lighting sensation in the virtual scene and subsequently its potential to impact their lighting-use behavior in IVE.