Virtual Reality as a visualization tool for lighting design

The purpose of the study was to investigate Virtual Reality as a visualization tool for communicating light and lighting design in projects. In the study, we sought to answer whether there are differences in light and spatial experience between a VR model and a physical environment. The VR model was created on the basis of visual evaluations of a physical environment and was therefore not based on light technical parameters (illuminance, luminance etc.). The data was collected by conducting an experiment where 35 subjects were put in two groups, an experiment group (n=30) and a control group (n=5). The subjects gave numerical input through a leader-led questionnaire about their experience of light and spatial dimensions in the VR model and the physical environment. The results showed that there was no significant statistical difference between how the experiment group experienced the light in the VR model compared to the physical environment. The experiment group also considered that the spatial dimensions in the two environments were equal except for a minor deviation concerning how high/low they experienced the room. In the results, a difference can be seen in how test subject with and without knowledge of light evaluated the environments which suggests that there may be a deficiency in how design is communicated between people with knowledge of light and people without knowledge of light. Following these findings, the presenting method of visualizing light in VR seems very promising and should be seen as a basis for further practical use of the tool