Functional vision barriers: a new concept analized in terms of human visual performance

COLOMBO, ELISA MARGARITA; O'DONELL, BEATRIZ; SANTILLAN, JAVIER ENRIQUE; ISSOLIO, LUIS ALBERTO

Psychology & Neuroscience

USP - Casa do Psicologo

Lugar: São Paulo; Año: 2013 vol. 6 p. 219 - 226

1984-3054

In this work we propose to define a specific category of barriers that we call "lighting barriers" and which refer to the negative effects on people, caused either by a poor design of the visual stimulus or by the visual environment that surround it. With this expression we refer to lighting and visual elements that may complicate or hinder functional vision, and which may make life even more difficult for people with vision deficits.Functional vision refers to the ability of the visual system to perform everyday tasks when faced with stimuli at suprathreshold conditions. This performance can be evaluated by using different approximations, i.e. studies of visual performance in terms of reaction times, or evaluation of brightness perception.We present studies of two different cases, both considered as barriers of lighting that would be present in real life under suprathreshold conditions: 1) stimuli with low luminance contrast information, where the addition of chromatic contrast improves the visual performance, and 2) tasks that are carried out in the presence of a glare source in the field of vision, diminishing visual performance and reducing brightness perception.The studies described in the following sections will attempt to establish the logical nexus between vision research and lighting practice.