Reactive Light Design in the ‘laboratory of the street’

This paper presents and discusses results related to a full-scale responsive urban lighting experiment and introduces a light design methodology inspired by reactive control strategies in robot systems. The experiment investigates how human motion intensities can be used as input to light design in a reactive system. Using video from 3 thermal cameras and computer vision analysis; people’s flow patterns were monitored and send as input into a reactive light system. Using physical as well as digital models 4 different light scenarios is designed and tested in full-scale. Results show that people on the square did not engage in the changing illumination and often they did not realized that the light changed according to their presence. However from the edge of the square people observed the light patterns “painted” on the city square, as such people became actors on the urban stage, often without knowing. Furthermore did the experiment showcase power savings up to 90% depending on the response strategy.