Aesthetics and Psychological Effects of Fractal Based Design

Highly prevalent in nature, fractal patterns possess self-similar components that repeat at varying size scales. The perceptual experience of human-made environments can be impacted with inclusion of these natural patterns. Previous work has demonstrated consistent trends in preference for and complexity estimates of fractal patterns. However, limited information has been gathered on the impact of other visual judgments. Here we examine the aesthetic and perceptual experience of fractal ‘global-forest’ designs already installed in humanmade spaces and demonstrate how fractal pattern components are associated with positive psychological experiences that can be utilized to promote occupant wellbeing. These designs are composite fractal patterns consisting of individual fractal ‘tree-seeds’ which combine to create a ‘global fractal forest.’ The local ‘tree-seed’ patterns, global configuration of tree-seed locations, and overall resulting ‘global-forest’ patterns have fractal qualities. These designs span multiple mediums yet are all intended to lower occupant stress without detracting from the function and overall design of the space. In this series of studies, we first establish divergent relationships between various visual attributes, with pattern complexity, preference, and engagement ratings increasing with fractal complexity compared to ratings of refreshment and relaxation which stay the same or decrease with complexity. Subsequently, we determine that the local constituent fractal (‘tree-seed’) patterns contribute to the perception of the overall fractal design, and address how to balance aesthetic and psychological effects (such as individual experiences of perceived engagement and relaxation) in fractal design installations. This set of studies demonstrates that fractal preference is driven by a balance between increased arousal (desire for engagement and complexity) and decreased tension (desire for relaxation or refreshment). Installations of these composite mid-high complexity ‘global-forest’ patterns consisting of ‘tree-seed’ components balance these contrasting needs, and can serve as a practical implementation of biophilic patterns in human-made environments to promote occupant wellbeing

ACCELERATOR CONTROL WITH THE LONWORKS FIELDBUS

Abstract The device access layer of the control system of the light source ANKA is almost completely based on LonWorks. We have developed and produced custom I/O boards that use the LonWorks micro-controller (the Neuron). The hardware comprises a high-precision 16-bit DAC/ADC/function generator board, a 40 channel digital I/O+counter board and a serial interface. The device logic has been programmed already at the Neuron level, such that for example power supplies that are controlled either through a DAC/ADC board or through a serial interface look the same on the fieldbus network. The features include state machine, remote command invocation and event driven communication with monitors and alarms. The nodes are automatically configured at start-up time from a PC-resident, version-controlled database for which an ftp-like protocol has been developed. Other tools, which allow for a generic control implementation, are a network node installation and configuration tool, a node inspection and management tool and a template compiler, which allows us to use the same database data on the PC and on the Neuron