CircaLight, a new circadian light assessment tool for Grasshopper environment: Development and reliability testing

Abstract

Natural light exposure both in flux and spectrum is essential to human health due to its direct relationship with circadian rhythms. Given that light affects visual performance and circadian rhythms differently, metrics need to assess them independently. The aim of this research is to present a new parametric workflow to integrate metrics quantifying the effect of light on circadian rhythm. CircaLight is a new open-source tool for Rhino environment developed as a plugin for Grasshopper. This software enables the calculation of different metrics that quantify the effect of light, both natural and electric, on circadian rhythms, considering the influence of the spectral reflectance of inner surfaces. The CircaLight components can be integrated into Grasshopper plugins such as Solemma or Ladybug tools providing information about the Circadian Stimulus, the Equivalent Melanopic Lux and the Melanopic Photopic ratio, all of which provide current metrics related with circadian rhythms. This research evaluates the reliability of the software presented, quantifying its accuracy by means of other validated software. The results show the accuracy of this new parametric tool with an error under ±10% even in the most unfavorable scenarios