Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics
Are you in the process of developing a new product and would like to know how it will be accepted by (potential) users and how it will affect their well-being? With our innovative indoor laboratory for impact research, our experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP can help.
Today, people spend the majority of their lives - both during work and leisure time - indoors. The indoor environment should therefore be designed to ensure people's good health, well-being and performance and, ideally, even improve them. To achieve this, appropriate targets must be formulated, and structural and technical solutions provided. Within the scope of the High Performance Indoor Environment (HiPIE) research and development initiative, we at Fraunhofer IBP have built a test environment in which ambient conditions can be varied quickly and easily. This allows us to study human responses such as perception, sensation, experience, and behavior.
In addition, using the lab, we can evaluate cause-effect relationships scientifically, quickly and inexpensively. In a freely-configurable space measuring approx. 45 square meters, we can specifically adjust the physical environmental conditions such as acoustics, lighting, room climate and air quality. For example, we can create a virtual acoustic environment using a wide range of sound sources to generate an almost arbitrary spatial sound scene by means of wave field synthesis.
Furthermore, a 3D audio speaker setup or binaural recording and playback systems provide supplementary techniques for simulating acoustic environments. A unique, controllable daylight wall in front of the test room windows not only enables test subjects to look out of the window virtually, but it also allows us to carry out well-defined experiments on the balance of daylight and lighting systems. Thanks to our air conditioning equipment, summer heat as well as cold periods can also be simulated.
Human health and well-being in relation to new developments and product solutions can be studied in various contexts in our HiPIE laboratory. For example, we have already conducted numerous studies in the areas of working, living, school and hospital environments, as well as for the automotive industry. In user tests, we help our customers evaluate how new product solutions affect people's well-being and how they are rated by users.