Architectural engineering's Houser leads study on perceptions of LED lighting
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. A research team led by Kevin Houser, professor of architectural engineering, has determined that color and whiteness rendition has a profound effect on LED light source preference. The team's findings were published in Lighting Research & Technology in an article titled "Perceptual responses to LED illumination with colour rendering indices of 85 and 97" at: http://lrt.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/08/22/1477153514548089 . In addition to Houser, the research team included architectural engineering graduate student Minchen Wei, and Aurelien David and Mike Krames from Soraa, the California-based lighting manufacturer that participated in the study. The researchers recruited 48 participants to compare colorful and white objects under two different light-emitting diode (LED) sources: a blue-pumped LED with a two-phosphor mix and color rendering index (CRI) of 85 and a violet-pumped LED with three phosphors and a CRI of 97 (Soraa's VP3 Technology). CRI is a measure of a light source's ability to show object colors realistically or naturally compared to a familiar reference source, either incandescent light or daylight. CRI has a maximum value of 100, with a lower value indicating that some colors may appear unnatural when illuminated by the lamp.
