LEDTestingApplication.pdfVIP

LED Testing Application November 2011 Seeing Beyond CRI The industry faces a color quality challenge with the advent of LEDs by Al Near “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”: This subjective approach may be suitable for fine art, but it proves much less effective in engineering-rooted disciplines like lighting. And yet, with the emergence of high brightness LEDs and other SSL technologies, subjectivity is often the only basis available for designers to gauge the color quality of projected light sources. Current metrics such as the International Commission on Illumination (CIE)’s Color Rendering Index (CRI)—introduced more than 40 years ago—do not completely account for how the human eye sees color under LED lighting or comprehensively compare this lighting to traditional sources. As lighting technologies continue to grow and refine, it is clear that balanced lighting standards need to follow closely behind this evolution to ensure both beauty and a quantifiable color quality metric. WHY COLOR QUALITY MATTERS The average individual may not recognize it, but the various wavelengths and colors that electric lighting provides greatly impact our physiological and psychological levels. Consider, for example, the feeling rendered after entering a dimly lit room with older, 4,000K, halophosphate, cool-white fluorescent lamps versus the feeling of being outside in daylight for 20 minutes. People typically respond better to an environment when they experience full-spectrum color quality. The health benefits that lighting with good color quality offers is not exclusive to one industry; it is relevant for employers who want more productive workers, retailers who want to showcase their products in the best light, interior designers who want their full color palette to shine through and caregivers who want to ensure optimal patient healing. Although overall color perception can vary depending on age, visual acuity and, as some couples may have already suspected, even gender, a