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Recently, decreasing energy consumption under the premise of building comfort has become a popular topic, especially visual comfort. Existing research on visual comfort lacks a standard of how to select indicators. Moreover, studies on individual visual preference considering the interaction between internal and external environment are few. In this paper, we ranked common visual indicators by the cloud model combined with the failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) and hierarchical technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Unsatisfied vertical illuminance, daylight glare index, luminance ratio, and shadow position are the top four indicators. Based on these indicators, we also built the individual visual comfort model through five categories of personalized data obtained from the experiment, which was trained by four machine learning algorithms. The results show that random forest has the best prediction performance and support vector machine is second. Gaussian mixed model and classification tree have the worst performance of stability and accuracy. In addition, this study also programmed a BIM plug-in integrating environmental data and personal preference data to predict appropriate vertical illuminance for a specific occupant. Thus, managers can adjust the intensity of artificial light in the office by increasing or decreasing the height of table lamps, saving energy and improving occupant comfort. This novel model will serve as a paradigm for selecting visual indicators and make indoor space be tailored to meet individual visual preferences.

Reading is one of the popular activities among elderly persons. A reasonable level of daylight illumination can ensure the visual comfort of reading for elderly persons. State arousal level and subjective comfort report are important parameters reflecting the effect of daylight illumination on visual comfort of reading in elderly persons. In this study, daylight illumination measurements were conducted in a nursing institution of Shenyang, China. Moreover, the methods of electrodermal activity (EDA) physiological index measurement and questionnaire scoring were used to compare and analyze the state arousal level and visual comfort of elderly persons under different illumination conditions. The results show that when elderly persons were involved in their daily reading activity, the acceptable daylight illumination range was between 300 and 1000 lx. When the daylight illumination was between 600 and 800 lx, the state arousal level and visual comfort was high; when it was 700 lx, the state arousal level and visual comfort was the highest. Although 500 and 900 lx both indicated neutral illumination, the evaluations were more consistent at 500 lx than at 900 lx. At 300, 400, and 1000 lx, visual comfort was poor and the state arousal level was low. At 300 lx, visual comfort was the worst and the state arousal level was the lowest. This study provides a reliable reference for architects to design the daylight conditions of the living spaces of the elderly.

This study is aimed to investigate factors that can affect the audio-visual comfort of tourists with a mountainous landscape. The results reveal that the audio-visual comfort of tourists is positively correlated with the percentage of tourists engaged in a dynamic state. In contrast, the audio-visual comfort has strong negative correlations with density, sound pressure level and sound characters including fluctuation and loudness. Overall, respondents in the mountain area find the audio-visual level most comfortable when the ratio of visitors in dynamic states is greater than 33%, the fluctuation of sound is within 0.08 vacil, the loudness of sound is less than 46 sone, the population density is less than 0.822 person/m2, and the sound pressure level is less than 82 dB. Compared with urban areas, a 24 dB increase in the sound pressure level threshold is observed for a positive evaluation of audio-visual comfort in the mountain area.

In order to obtain the quantitative relationship between multisource data from road landscape and driving visual comfort in two‐lane mountainous road, we collected the driver's eye movement data and road environment data through real vehicle tests. The threshold segmentation method and the target landscape area ratio method are used to process the visual image, and the spatial enclosure degree is used to express the driver's sense of spatial closure. In addition, an HSV color model is established to characterize the driver's visual perception of the mountain highway landscape environment. Combining the target landscape area ratio of road landscape with the amount of color information, the calculation method of road landscape information is obtained. According to the characteristics of normal distribution of pupil area ratio, five grades of driver's visual comfort level are proposed, and the regression relationship between comfort level and landscape information is established. The study found that there is a significant negative correlation between the amount of road landscape information and the driver's visual comfort. When the amount of road landscape information is less than 0.338, the driving comfort is higher, which is conducive to driving safety. However, when the amount of landscape information in the road area exceeds 0.644, the driving comfort decreases significantly, which is detrimental to driving safety. The study found that the reasonable landscape can make the driver's driving safer and more comfortable. When the amount of landscape information in the road environment is less than 0.338, the driving comfort is higher, which is conducive to driving safety. However, when the amount of landscape information in the road area exceeds 0.644, the driving comfort decreases significantly, which is unfavorable to driving safety.

The accurate assessment of visual comfort in indoor spaces is crucial for creating environments that enhance occupant well-being, productivity, and overall satisfaction. This paper presents a groundbreaking contribution to the field of visual comfort assessment in occupied buildings, addressing the existing research gap in methods for evaluating visual comfort once a building is in use while ensuring compliance with design specifications. The primary aim of this study was to introduce a pioneering approach for estimating visual comfort in indoor environments that is non-intrusive, practical, and can deliver accurate results without compromising accuracy. By incorporating mathematical visual comfort estimation into a regression model, the proposed method was evaluated and compared using real-life scenario. The experimental results demonstrated that the suggested model surpassed the mathematical model with an impressive performance improvement of 99%, requiring fewer computational resources and exhibiting a remarkable 95% faster processing time.

Purpose: To investigate visual performance during reading under different illumination sources. Methods: This experimental quantitative study included 40 (20 females and 20 males) emmetropic participants with no history of ocular pathology. The participants were randomly assigned to read a near visual task under four different illuminations (400-lux constant): compact fluorescent light (CFL), tungsten light (TUNG), fluorescent tube light (FLUO), and light emitting diode (LED). Subsequently, we evaluated the participants' experiences of eight symptoms of visual comfort. Results: The mean age of the participants was 19.86 ± 1.09 (range: 18-21) years. There was no statistically significant difference between the reading rates of males and females under the different illuminations (P = 0.99); however, the reading rate was fastest among males under CFL, and among females under FLUO. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a strong significant difference (P = 0.001) between males and females (P = 0.002) regarding the visual performance and illuminations. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the influence of illumination on reading rate; there were no significant differences between males and females under different illuminations, however, males preferred CFL and females preferred FLUO for faster reading and visual comfort. Interestingly, neither preferred LED or TUNG. Although energy-efficient, visual performance under LED is poor; it is uncomfortable for prolonged reading and causes early symptoms of fatigue.

Electrochromic systems for smart windows make it possible to enhance energy efficiency in the construction sector, in both residential and tertiary buildings. The dynamic modulation of the spectral properties of a glazing, within the visible and infrared ranges of wavelengths, allows one to adapt the thermal and optical behavior of a glazing to the everchanging conditions of the environment in which the building is located. This allows appropriate control of the penetration of solar radiation within the building. The consequent advantages are manifold and are still being explored in the scientific literature. On the one hand, the reduction in energy consumption for summer air conditioning (and artificial lighting, too) becomes significant, especially in \"cooling dominated\" climates, reaching high percentages of saving, compared to common transparent windows; on the other hand, the continuous adaptation of the optical properties of the glass to the changing external conditions makes it possible to set suitable management strategies for the smart window, in order to offer optimal conditions to take advantage of daylight within the confined space. This review aims at a critical review of the relevant literature concerning the benefits obtainable in terms of energy consumption and visual comfort, starting from a survey of the main architectures of the devices available today.

The utilization of aperiodic flickering visual stimuli under the form of code-modulated Visual Evoked Potentials (c-VEP) represents a pivotal advancement in the field of reactive Brain–Computer Interface (rBCI). A major advantage of the c-VEP approach is that the training of the model is independent of the number and complexity of targets, which helps reduce calibration time. Nevertheless, the existing designs of c-VEP stimuli can be further improved in terms of visual user experience but also to achieve a higher signal-to-noise ratio, while shortening the selection time and calibration process. In this study, we introduce an innovative variant of code-VEP, referred to as “Burst c-VEP”. This original approach involves the presentation of short bursts of aperiodic visual flashes at a deliberately slow rate, typically ranging from two to four flashes per second. The rationale behind this design is to leverage the sensitivity of the primary visual cortex to transient changes in low-level stimuli features to reliably elicit distinctive series of visual evoked potentials. In comparison to other types of faster-paced code sequences, burst c-VEP exhibit favorable properties to achieve high bitwise decoding performance using convolutional neural networks (CNN), which yields potential to attain faster selection time with the need for less calibration data. Furthermore, our investigation focuses on reducing the perceptual saliency of c-VEP through the attenuation of visual stimuli contrast and intensity to significantly improve users’ visual comfort. The proposed solutions were tested through an offline 4-classes c-VEP protocol involving 12 participants. Following a factorial design, participants were instructed to focus on c-VEP targets whose pattern (burst and maximum-length sequences) and amplitude (100% or 40% amplitude depth modulations) were manipulated across experimental conditions. Firstly, the full amplitude burst c-VEP sequences exhibited higher accuracy, ranging from 90.5% (with 17.6s of calibration data) to 95.6% (with 52.8s of calibration data), compared to its m-sequence counterpart (71.4% to 85.0%). The mean selection time for both types of codes (1.5 s) compared favorably to reports from previous studies. Secondly, our findings revealed that lowering the intensity of the stimuli only slightly decreased the accuracy of the burst code sequences to 94.2% while leading to substantial improvements in terms of user experience. Taken together, these results demonstrate the high potential of the proposed burst codes to advance reactive BCI both in terms of performance and usability. The collected dataset, along with the proposed CNN architecture implementation, are shared through open-access repositories. •We propose a new type of code VEP, burst, for better performances in BCI applications•The contrast between states of the visual stimuli (amplitude depth) was manipulated•Burst c-VEP improved classification performance and user experience versus m-sequence•Contrast reduction improves user experience but lowers classification performance•Performance reduction was mitigated with burst due to the robustness of the VEP

This study investigates the impact of skylight and atrium configurations on daylighting performance in Dubai’s shopping malls, where extreme climatic conditions encourage indoor public use. Focusing on the atrium space as a social and commercial core, the research aims to optimize daylight quality and quantity to enhance user comfort. The study adopts a quantitative approach combining simulation and field measurements, following a deductive research framework that begins with an assumption that specific skylight and atrium configurations can achieve better daylight performance and visual comfort. A multi-phase methodology includes real-world case study analysis, on-site field measurements, and computer simulations to evaluate annual daylight metrics and validate collected data. A parametric reference model is then developed to simulate various skylight and atrium configurations, assessed using multi-objective optimization (MOO) techniques. Results show that optimal daylighting performance depends on key parameters such as atrium dimensions, spatial orientation, skylight-to-floor ratio, and glazing properties. These configurations were applied on actual case study and reduced the average illuminance from 11,938 lx to 3,157 lx, lowered ASE by 170%, and improved SDG by 37.7% achieving 81% imperceptible glare with minimal visual discomfort. The study concludes with design guidelines and recommendations tailored to Dubai’s context, offering a framework for future atrium design, with potential applicability in local building regulations to promote sustainable and user-centric architectural practices.

Offices have a strategic role in supporting social and economic activities of people in the world. More than a place to work, offices become spaces for interaction, creativity, and productivity for their workers. In recent times, issues related to the quality of the work environment have become a major concern in architectural design, especially in terms of creating comfort for workers. Comfort for workers itself is divided into 3 factors, namely: visual, thermal and audial. Visual comfort includes various aspects, such as adequate natural lighting, harmonious use of materials and colors, a calming open space appearance, and a room layout that supports work orientation and focus. Comfort can increase job satisfaction, and can affect individual and team performance. The benefits of this approach not only have an impact on work efficiency, but also create a healthier, more inclusive and sustainable work environment. By considering visual comfort as a primary design parameter, office buildings can develop into an important part of the urban ecosystem that supports the holistic well-being of society.