Issue 562 (March 2007) - Office of Marketing and Communications

11U Q N E W S , M A R C H 2 0 0 7SMART LIGHTING SWITCHES ONLIGHTING EFFECTS COULD BE REVOLUTIONISED THANKS TO A NEW UQ ENGINEERING PROJECT.BY CAMERON PEGGIt’s not that often that an engineer findsinspiration for their research at the ballet. Butfor UQ graduate Aaron Tan, the theatre wasthe perfect place to start his search for smarterlighting design.Working with Dr Ralf Muhlberger from UQ’sSchool of Information Technology and ElectricalEngineering (ITEE), Mr Tan hopes to createthe world’s first interactive or affective lightingsystem, which can respond intuitively to themood of audience members and performers.At present, lighting design is both time andlabour intensive, requiring each effect to beplotted manually during rehearsals and thenfollowed on cue during each performance.Mr Tan said two of his primary goals were todigitise the process – making it faster and moreefficient – and to produce lighting effects thatbetter reflected the emotions of those both onand off the stage.“There’s really no intelligence behind currentmood lighting,” he said.“The technology in question enables morecontrol and accuracy in classifying emotion,providing a more robust and efficient approachto visual storytelling.“This will also reduce the mental workloadof the operator and lighting designer.”Central to the project is the developmentof “emotional impact sliders”, which wouldallow designers to portray stock sensations(happiness, sadness, anger, shock, fear anddisgust) more easily and effectively.Mr Tan’s undertaking is part of ITEE’sbroader research program into how emotionsare expressed and affected throughtechnologies such as video conferencing,computer games and email.“A lot of what we currently know aboutemotions is conjecture, and wishful thinking justisn’t science,” he said.“The measure of emotion is elusive in natureand I’m trying to improve that process.”As part of his research, Mr Tan attendedtechnical rehearsals for a recent QueenslandBallet production, and consulted industryexperts including Steven Newman, director ofphotography on the blockbuster film SupermanReturns.He said a possible experiment involved placingsensors on a person’s skin to measure theiremotional reaction to different lighting effects.Once these values were quantified, Mr Tansaid lighting design could become a “smart”technology, which could sense the mood ofusers and adjust in real time.“The research has proved that intelligentlighting is possible today with emergingtechnologies,” he said.“As current user interfaces are inadequatefor the needs of emotion-based lighting, theresearch is also focused on new designinterfaces to define and represent emotions.“With more research, the mental controlof lighting systems will be a reality in the nearfuture.”Researcher Aaron Tan (left) watches a lighting designer at work.