Room- and illumination-related effects of an artificial skylight

An artificial skylight has been developed which aims at creating an impression of a daylight opening in the ceiling by means of an artificial sunspot and a blue sky with perceived infinite depth. It is the goal of this work to compare and quantify the perceived room atmosphere created by this artificial system with that created by a conventional lighting system. A total of 100 subjects participated in a randomized controlled study within which the short-term effects on room lighting- and room atmosphere-appearance were determined. Both the artificial skylight and the resulting room atmosphere were perceived as very natural and attractive. Thus, the first strong evidence for the expected positive effects of this artificial skylight was determined.