Visual Performance Lab
This lab houses a patented process that allows the testing and simulate a variety of visual performance problems. Using these tests, we can develop solutions that typically require less light and better visibility then the current client practices. Natural and artificial lighting provide light to see visual tasks, yet few designers or researchers consider the characteristics of the visual system in their work. Orfield has been a leader in developing visual task solutions in architecture and product development which achieve higher visual task performance and lower visual stress.
In assessing viewer response, the approach at Orfield Laboratories is to define and evaluate the effect of visual task variables such as viewing orientation, field luminance, glare, and masking illumination in order to provide correlations between these objective measures and subjective performance and preference rankings of viewers as the basis for visual design solutions.
From an early emphasis on the architectural lighting and daylighting fields, Orfield Laboratories has evolved to become a source of leading-edge research measurement technology. In collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada, Orfield was the first consulting user of a measurement system called video photometry. Measurement assessments often consider the visual task, the visual environment and the illumination sources.
In addition to architectural lighting, Orfield Laboratories performs research and design in the areas of industrial and inspection lighting, display systems and their "visual intelligibility," information and behavioral analysis of signage systems, viewer detection & recognition performance and forensic visual performance analysis.