SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSION OF DISCOMFORT GLARE FROM SOURCES OF NON-UNIFORM LUMINANCE

The intent of this study was to further investigate the effects of spatial frequency and position on discomfort glare. Most of the discomfort research in the past has used sources of uniform luminance, so not much is known about how non-uniformity affects the perception of glare. An apparatus was designed and built specifically for this study, but it was also designed to have significant flexibility for future work. Two different experiments were performed with this apparatus: a paired comparison experiment; and, a rating scale experiment. For both experiments, 6 levels of spatial frequency and 4 levels of position were studied. The results show that both spatial frequency and position are significant predictors of discomfort glare, as is the interaction between the two. As spatial frequency increases, discomfort increases. As position increases, discomfort decreases. Spatial frequency affects discomfort more at positions close to the line of sight than at positions far from the line of sight