Background
During a 4 year project, I researched and designed for lighting control in open offices, in close collaboration with the OpenAIS project, led by Philips. The OpenAIS project worked on adopting the IoT paradigm into professional lighting. This is a disruptive technology for existing value chains, which needed to be understood.
Role
Doctoral Researcher @ 
Eindhoven University of Technology
Team
Promotor: Berry Eggen, Co-promotor: Harm van Essen. Department of Industrial Design, Future Everyday group. In collaboration with the OpenAIS consortium.
Tools & Skills
The OpenAIS consortium (Open Architectures for Intelligent Solid State Lighting Systems) was a collaboration of industry leaders in lighting and internet technology, including Signify (formerly known as Philips Lighting), Zumtobel, Tridonic, ARM, NXP Semiconductors, Johnson Controls, Dynniq (formerly Imtech), University of Technology Eindhoven, TNO-ESI.
I collaborated with several stakeholders in the building-systems sector to identify the potential impact of smart lighting on the building value chain. Additionally, I investigated the impact of smart light on the social interactions in the office, by designing and building a smart lighting system and controllers, and evaluating use in the field.
Below you can find an abstract of my doctoral dissertation which I defended at the Eindhoven University of Technology on September 11, 2019. The full dissertation can be downloaded here.
Dissertation Abstract
Work is not a place anymore – people work in and from multiple places, from office buildings to traditionally non-work spaces. This new way of working creates a need for personalisation of the workplace. Intelligent building systems can fulfil this need as they allow for fine-grained control of the environment. Modern lighting systems are a prominent and contemporary example. Developments in lighting and networking technologies allow lighting to become a part of the Internet of Things (IoT). We call this the Internet of Lighting (IoL).
IoL has the potential to create new value for office workers, building owners, and other stakeholders. However, how to realise this value is a lesser explored area. Moreover, the inclusion of lighting in the IoT paradigm can have a disruptive effect on existing lighting business. The dissertation presents studies that investigate the above challenges.
Challenge 1: Impact of IoL on the Value Chain
In two consecutive studies with professional practitioners in the European office lighting value chain. First, we jointly identified potential points of impact of IoT on the lighting value chain. Second, we evaluated this potential impact with professionals after the implementation of an IoT lighting system. From the insights, we constructed the Layered Value Method: a method to facilitate systemic impact analysis and joint value creation for IoT building systems.
Challenge 2: Designing for Interactive Lighting
In parallel to the value chain research, 3 studies were conducted in a lab and a field environment to investigate how people experience interactivity for lighting in the office. Two state-of-the-art interactive lighting systems were designed and deployed with integrated custom end-user control solutions. The study insights are operationalized as three lenses that provide considerations for the design of the lighting control interface, for the social aspects around shared control, and for the automatic system behavior.
- Lighting system 1: Living lab: Interactive office lighting system
- Lighting system 2: OpenAIS demonstrator
- Study 1 & 2: Shared lighting control in the office
- Study 3: Design Considerations for Interactive Office Lighting
The work is concluded with reflections on decision moments that were pivotal for the end-user experience of the OpenAIS solution, and ethical considerations for collecting personal data, providing detailed manual control, opening up controls to third parties, and deploying autonomous building systems.