Proposal of Protocol for Construction of Light-Quality Tunable Illumination System using Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal

ABSTRACT Research into shadow quality or light quality has exchanged light diffusers or changed the arrangement of parts to change light quality. This necessity has restricted the type of psychological experiments that can be realized. In this study, electrically controllable polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) was applied for a continuously tuned diffuser. This illumination system using PDLC finely tunes light quality, which influences shadow quality. Though light quality can only be tuned by finely controlling applied voltage to the PDLC, the light quality is not proportional to the controlled applied voltage. To construct an interface based on the magnitude of shadow softness (i.e., the light quality), the magnitude estimation (ME) method was used to estimate the relationship between the magnitude of shadow softness and applied voltage to the PDLC. When the applied voltage was adjusted with equal intervals in the magnitude of shadow softness obtained by ME, the shadows resulting under the illumination system using PDLC were felt at almost equal intervals in the shadow softness. Although this proposed protocol for constructing a light-quality tunable illumination system using PDLC may be incomplete at this stage, it is expected to motivate new research into light and shadow quality. PDLC light diffuser method of magnitude estimation shadow quality light quality