LUMINANCE ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR ILLUMINATED ADVERTISEMENTS

Abstract

The impact on electricity costs and the negative

effects on environments such as astronomy and the

environment, have led to public administrations regulate

lighting installations considering light pollution as an

important objective to counteract.

Current regulations regarding light pollution set

maximum luminance values, particularly in what

concerns the assessment of illuminated advertisements.

The determination of the points of the scene where

these peaks occur is subject to observation opinion of

the technician who perform the action. The sensitivity of

the human eye to brightness is nonlinear and misleading

in that its purpose is to identify the scene and not the

measure of values and light intensities. Moreover, the

use of conventional luminance meter involves measuring

point to point on the scene. This requires making many

measurements in order to sweep the whole scene and

determine where the maximum is reached. This action

is not only tedious and error prone, but involves taking

measurements at different successive instants which

affects repeatability errors and variation over time in

unstable scenarios.

This paper proposes the use of digital cameras to

evaluate the brightness, particularly for illuminated

advertisements. In this sense, digital photography has

color and brightness information from all points within

1. All information is taken simultaneously and can be

stored, processed and evaluated by software.