Towerheath - Light Manufacturing and Design

It's not often that an engineer finds inspiration for their research at the ballet.

But for University of Queensland graduate Aaron Tan, the theatre was the perfect place to start his search for smarter lighting design. Working with Dr Ralf Muhlberger from UQ's School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE), Mr Tan hopes to create the world's first interactive or affective lighting system, which can respond intuitively to the mood of audience members and performers.

At present, lighting design is both time and labour intensive, requiring each effect to be plotted manually during rehearsals and then followed on cue during each performance.

Central to the project is the development of “emotional impact sliders”, which would allow designers to portray stock sensations (happiness, sadness, anger, shock, fear and disgust) more easily and effectively.

Once these values were quantified, Mr Tan said lighting design could become a “smart” technology, which could sense the mood of users and adjust in real time.

“The research has proved that intelligent lighting is possible today with emerging technologies,” he said.

“As current user interfaces are inadequate for the needs of emotion-based lighting, the research is also focused on new design interfaces to define and represent emotions.

“With more research, the mental control of lighting systems will be a reality in the near future.”

Source: The UQ News online – view for complete article.