Start with ‘why’ (and who) – holiday reading and puppy eyes

Keep it simple, do it well, and finish it off properly…

Surely that’s not too much to ask?

This brilliant Wiki – The problems with smart buildings by BSRIA makes a compelling case for going back to basics when it comes to smart building technologies to consider the end-users’ needs and expectations (and skills) before reaching for a complex technological solution that risks not only failing to deliver on the performance promise but alienating the user, too.

Much of the work in this field focuses on air quality – consider reading Allen and Macomber’s brilliant book Healthy Buildings to learn more.

But if you’ve ever been faced with a meeting room control panel simply marked with ‘scenes’ 1 to 4, or found yourself suddenly sitting in the dark as a poorly-calibrated occupancy sensor failed to register your presence, you will know what I mean.

Access to lighting controls is one of the most obvious – and highly-valued- parameters when it comes to employee satisfaction with their workplace, which has been linked to improved productivity – Impact of occupant autonomy on satisfaction and building energy efficiency.

Offering control can be good for the planet too, delivering 5-30% reduction in energy use, simply by encouraging us to switch on the lights when we need them – Improving lighting energy efficiency through user response. 

Machine learning could help us to deliver the best of both worlds: This project drew on the fact that we are all unique but consistent in our actions. They used occupancy sensor data and user interactions to derive optimal set-points across the day. A pilot in ten offices found reductions of 37.9 to 73.2% in energy savings – Occupant centered lighting control for comfort and energy efficient building operation.

That’s a win – win!

Holiday reading

If you’re heading out of down – or simply enjoying a ‘staycation’, here are three books you might enjoy: 

Life Time: The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolutionise Your Health, by Russell Foster. Packed with cool facts to while away the hours by the pool – did you know that yawning increases alertness, athletes who are night owls perform up to 26% better when they compete in the evening and your gut biome has a body clock – and it talks your brain? 

Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialist World. A reassuring read for anyone who, like me, has a grasshopper brain. The blurb on the back cover says it well ‘The way to excel is by sampling widely, gaining a breadth of experiences, taking detours, experimenting relentlessly, juggling many interests – in other words, by developing range.’

Visions of Heaven: Dante and the Art of Divine Light, by Martin Kemp. A fascinating thesis on light as an expression of the difference between the earthly world of mathematical optics and the divine world of blinding revelation through Dante Alighieri’s writing and the remarkable paintings he inspired through the Renaissance into the Baroque. Not a ‘light’ read – or one to take if you’re flying economy with a limited luggage allowance! 

Out of the office today?

Make sure you really do switch off!

30% of millennials check work email within 15 minutes of waking. According to the Superhuman blog, 38% say ‘email fatigue’ is likely to make them quit – How Soon After Waking Up Do You Check Your Email?, The state of your inbox in 2021: email burnout and browsing in bed.

Blue light from your computer is like coffee for your brain and gets in the way of your body, releasing the hormone melatonin, which helps you get the deep sleep you need. Blue-blocking glasses 👓 and blue screen filters but don’t solve the problem: you’re probably answering emails, social media, or binge-watching in bed – Does iPhone night shift mitigate negative effects of smartphone use on sleep outcomes in emerging adults?

Staring at the computer without a break increases your risk of computer vision syndrome, with long term consequences for eye health, too – Digital eye strain: prevalence, measurement and amelioration.

TIPS💡

• Leave your phone in another room while you sleep – it will reduce the temptation to check it first thing when you wake.
• Make a date with yourself and your loved ones at a specific time every day if you can to be Out of the Office – and Offline too.
• Add a ‘working hours’ message to your email signature to set expectations – and encourage others to take a brain break too!

Puppy’s gaze

Who can resist a puppy’s gaze?

But some dogs take longer to return eye contact. Here are some resons why…

The first is breed:   dogs with a shorter head make eye contact faster – perhaps because the position of their eyes mean the centre of their visual field is more accurate, and perhaps because they look more like humans, so we tend to look at them more too.

Cooperative breeds and mongrels establish eye contact faster than dogs from non-cooperative breeds like greyhounds.

Younger and more playful dogs form eye contact faster than older ones, too – Shorter headed dogs, visually cooperative breeds, younger and playful dogs form eye contact faster with an unfamiliar human.

Humans focus our attention on faces, but dogs notice body language more – that’s why they can tell if you’re stressed – How Human Body Language Can Affect Dog Behavior, – and they can see if you’ve got a treat in your pocket, too! – Dogs (Canis familiaris) Gaze at Our Hands: A Preliminary Eye-Tracker Experiment on Selective Attention in Dogs.

Have a great weekend!

PS/ I’m super-chuffed – the book is being translated into Korean and I’ve been invited to present at the KIEES Annual Conference and launch the publication in November. I’d love to connect with the lighting community there, perhaps to join me at an event I’m planning at the British Chamber of Commerce – do let me know if you or any of your network are in that part of the world? Thank you!