1/F Noise-Fluctuated Cozy Lighting System for Concentration Improvement

The power spectrum of human heart rate measured over 24 h exhibits “power-law” 1/f alpha-type spectral behavior with alpha approximately 1. This may be one of the reasons why 1/f noise help people make relaxed, or feel comfortable. As a result, people feel relaxed by looking at a candle light, listening to the sound of ocean wave, or feeling the breezing wind because all of these natural phenomenon is based on the 1/f noise fluctuation. Considering this feature, a technical approach of 1/f noise fluctuation has been applied to various industry products, ranging from light illumination, fan control, temperature control, etc. to implement cozy products. For example, one typical example would be a lighting product mimicking a candle light, which illuminate just like a true candle. A candle light provides a cozy atmosphere to relax our mind by forgetting severe business issues, which is because of the nature of 1/f noise fluctuation as mentioned above. However, it is not suitable to do something important by concentration under a candle light because of the changes of brightness and the blinking nature of candles. This study designs and develops 1/f noise-fluctuated cozy lighting system with stable brightness and chromaticity without blinking so that people unconsciously feel relaxed under this lighting system without noticing the 1/f noise fluctuation and concentrate on work or operation. In order to implement this lighting system, combination of two types of white LED lights were used. White LED lights are manufactured by the combination of different colors having different spectrum. For example, Blue with YAG fluorophore, Blue with RG fluorophore, UV with RGB fluorophore, etc. provide all white LED lights. This means that it is possible to make two different types of LED lights which have the same white color with different combination of spectrums. If the two white colors of the two LED are the same, nobody cannot notice when the two LEDs are switching over each other, periodically or randomly. People only think that the white color is constantly provided by the white LED light. However, if the switching is based on 1/f noise fluctuation, some positive effect can be expected under this lighting system. This paper shows the overview of the idea of 1/f noise-fluctuated cozy lighting system, and then presents the two basic challenges of the idea towards concentration improvement; Combination of two types of white LED and 1/f noise-fluctuated switching system. These two challenges are presented using a prototype lighting systems developed in this study.