A useful laboratory technique has been devised using commonly available optical hardware and software to accurately measure the eye’s response to flashing light-emitting diode (LED) sources. A simplified version of the modified Allard technique is implemented using a silicon detector, a digital multimeter, and Labview® software to collect and analyze the data. Using calibrated radiometric measurements, the method presented allows quantifying, in photopic units, the human eye’s response to these sources. The procedure first requires exact conversion of irradiance measurements from radiometric to photopic units and this is done; however, during the study, it was determined that for LEDs with narrow spectra, this conversion can be simplified using an approximation. This involves taking the spectral form of the LED to be a delta function situated at its peak wavelength, which makes the conversion from watts to lumens a simple multiplication by the luminous efficiency, η(λ) value at that peak wavelength. For LEDs with a full width at half maximum of 20 nm or less, this approximation is found to be accurate to ±5% throughout the visible range.
A laboratory based technique has been devised for measuring the illumination characteristics of flashing
light emitting diode (LED) sources. The difference between the photopic measurement of a continuous
source and a flashing source is that some analytic method must be incorporated into the measurement to
account for the response of the eye. Ohno et al have devised an analytic expression for the impulse
response of the eye, which closely matches existing forms used for finding effective intensity1. These other
forms are the Blondel-Rey equation, the Form Factor method, and the Allard method.4,5,6 Ohno's research
suggests a modified Allard method, but offers no procedure for actually making the measurement. In this
research, the modified Allard1 method approach has been updated using standard laboratory equipment
such as a silicon detector in conjunction with a digital multi-meter and Labview® software to make this
measurement. Labview® allows exact computation of the modified Allard method. However, an
approximation scheme for the conversion from radiometric units to photopic units must be adopted. The
LED spectral form is approximately a Gaussian line shape with full width at half maximum of about 15 to
30nm. The Gaussian curve makes converting from radiometric to photopic units difficult. To simplify, the
technique presented here estimates the spectral form of the LEDs to be a Dirac delta function situated at the
peak wavelength. This allows the conversion from watts to lumens to be a simple application of the
luminous efficiency curve.2 For LEDs with a full width half maximum of 20nm, this scheme is found to be
accurate to ± 5%.
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