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June Solstice, 2009. Quito, Ecuador The new modern and recent neurophysiology-inspired steady-state colour appearance model is in place Recent neuroscientific insights have contributed to review colour appearance models. A new model has been constructed by combining chromatic adaptation with nonlinear response compression, that performs at least as well as CIECAM02. The reference is: .. Kunkel, T, et al., A neurophysiology-inspired steady-state color appearance model, Journal of the Optical Society of America A Vol 26, No 4 / April 2009 776-782 This new contribution has sufficient merits to include directly on DETERTEC's calculations of colour appearance of surfaces, which in turn facilitate the understanding of consumer visual experience under real market scenarios. DETERTEC at COLAMIQC XIX DETERTEC will participate in the coming Latin American and Iberic Congress of Cosmetic Chemists, COLAMIQC XIX, to be held in the city of Guayaquil, ECUADOR, during October 25-28 2009. We hope to present orally our paper titled: MODELLING THE CONSUMER'S NATURALLY DIFFERENT AND BEAUTY BY IMAGE ANALYSIS This study exposes a new in-house methodology based on digital colorimetry of consumer's images that represent the condition "I am OK with my look" and shows the numerical modelling approach to represent that perception, in the field of cosmetic product, specifically in relation with the use of lipsticks. The paper will offer to the audience the opportunity to understand the way to customise colour difference equations to represent relevant consumer perceptions of contrast.
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March Equinox, 2009. Quito, Ecuador New links between consumer benefit perception of foods and visual experience A collaborative project between neuroscientists at the Centre Hopitalier Universitaire Vaudois and University of Lausanne, the Centre d'Imagerie Biomedicate, as well as the Nestle Research Center, in Lausanne, Switzerland, revealed that the human brain predicts the energy content of food, simply by looking at its picture. The brain distinguished between the high- and low-fat foods within 200 milliseconds (ms). According to Dr Le Coutre, one of the autors, "this suggests that reward properties, such as food's energy and fat content, are treated rapidly and in parallel with the brain regions involved in categorization and decision-making." Despite of the link between consumer benefit perception of food and its visual attributes is well known in general, this study is "the first time that these processes have been investigated in humans, giving us indications of when and where food-related choices are made in the brain." The reference of the study is: .. Toepel, U., et al., The brain tracks the energetic value in food images, NeuroImage 44 (2009) 967-974 This study is very good contribution to brands and products innovation project of foods, due to its contribution to understand the humans' decision-making processes that involves the consumer visual evaluation of food attributes under real market scenarios.
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December Solstice, 2008. Quito, Ecuador Modern colorimetry algorithms to improve visual perception understanding Vision science in general and colorimetry in particular are fields of continuos advancements thanks to several basic research groups spread around the world. DETERTEC as other dozens of applied research groups, is continuously nurturing internal procedures from those well supported and accepted advancements. That is the case of the recent implementation of the new physiologically-based colour matching functions. Conventional and basic colorimetry procedures are based on CIE 1931 colour matching functions and its supplementary CIE 1964 functions. Starting in the 60s, with findings of the properties of light-sensitive photoreceptors, and continuing with recent understandings of the visual function, the scientific community in the field, has accepted the cone fundamentals of the Stockman and Sharpe (2000), as the new physiological-relevant cone fundamentals in which all colorimetry computation algorithms are based. The consumer industry has been aware of the deficiencies of the CIE 1931 and 1964 functions, which are seriously flawed particularly at short-wavelengths, and their deficiencies to represent consumer's evaluations of fluorescent materials, but only recently the scientific community (late 2006) has offered a better alternative. DETERTEC in line with this, implemented during 2008 the new algorithms in all colorimetric procedures, the results are a more coherent understanding of consumer visual perception under real visual scenarios. During 2009 DETERTEC will keep and expand the use of the new algorithms, now part of the LaundryVisualSim in-silico technology. New Indoor Daylight Illuminant Following the recommendations of the Technical Committee 1-66, Division 1, International Commission on Illumination (CIE), DETERTEC includes, starting in January 2009, a new illuminant for colorimetric calculations, the standard illuminant ID65, which represents a daylight source of illuminations at indoor environments. The new illuminant was derived taking into account the average transmission spectrum of window glass, the average thickness of window glass and the average angle of transmission of light through the window. The differences between indoor and outdoor daylight are in the UV and the red portion of the spectrum. The new standard collects the fact that at indoor conditions exists around 32% less ultraviolet and violet radiation capable to excite fluorescent agents. The visual experience of a myriad of consumer products take in effect at indoor daylight visual scenarios. The new standard is an important contribution to understand consumer visual perception in real market realities, specially of fluorescent surfaces.
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September Equinox, 2008. Quito, Ecuador DETERTEC and the 7th World Conference on Detergents For third occasion in a row, DETERTEC has been invited to participate in Technical Committee in charge of the program of the 7th World Conference on Detergents to be held in Montreaux, Switzerland on October 4-7, 2010. The overall theme of the conference will be "New Strategies in a Dynamic Global Economy". The conference is organised by the AOCS, The American Oil Chemists' Society. It our privilege to become part of the selected group of companies and people in charge of the most important global event in the field of soaps and detergents. The Conference is held each 4 years and DETERTEC has been part of the organizing committee in the years 2002, 2006 and will be in 2010. DETERTEC is the only company from the less-developed markets forming part of the Committee. For more a more detailed information about the conference, please visit http://www.aocs.org/meetings/montreux/
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June Solstice, 2008. Quito, Ecuador Contract business model improves our customer's value In the year 2007 DETERTEC started to change its business model from an occasional isolated test provider to a medium or long term innovation partner under yearly contracts. The transit has not been so smooth as we expected. Some of our occasional clients decided to see other alternatives internal of external, but some others decided to change the business relation in line with DETERTEC proposal. After more than one year of application, the new business model has been evaluated with our clients. The advantages for them were clear: .. more services from DETERTEC for less price From DETERTEC side the advantages are also important, specifically the ability to plan our resources and efforts and a new healthy pressure to obtain clearly visible final results in line with our Clients expectations. In general terms the model is helping to business sustainability in both sides.
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March Equinox, 2008. Quito, Ecuador Characterising priming elements as part of brand innovation projects Up to now, the most prominent brand innovation strategy is to manage total consumer experiences, which in turn are mainly a group of focal sensory experiences. Therefore, the need to manage visual experiences during communication, purchasing, usage and after-use moments are now the job of people in charge of brand management and innovation. The final idea is to support the consumer's generation of value to the brand. The generation of value by the consumer rely on the perception of some critical benefits which are influenced by priming elements, according to recent findings in the field of psychology. One example of that in the area of laundry products is the influence of the visual perception of changes on the soiled garments when they are wetted and enter in contact with the washing solutions made with soap bars or powder detergents. That critical visual perception can the enormous potential to influence the final cleanliness and whiteness perception of some washing process. Fortunately, understanding visual perception under real scenarios has been improved in the last decade thanks to new developments in the field of photonics and new algorithms to quantify colour appearance. The approach of DETERTEC in the field is the use of a combination of two elements: a in-house built non-contact absolute spectrofluorimeter, and in-house software (based on JMP) to compute data according the most recent colour appearance models in combination with recent findings in the uniformity of colour spaces, the influence of chromatic induction and the new international accepted physiologically-based colour matching functions. The final output is a full characterisation of the consumer visual perception of wetted fabrics at the beginning of the washing process according to the most modern principles of vision science applied to relevant market realities. Recently DETERTEC has expanded the area with the use of four (4) test fabrics models relevant to less-developed laundry markets: .. light soiled nearly-new cotton knitted white fabric .. soiled dingy cotton knitted white fabric greyished .. light soiled nearly-new cotton woven white fabric .. soiled dingy cotton woven white fabric yellowished No doubts that in the coming years more products in the very competitive consumer industry will have the potential to offer consumer more easily perceived benefits that in turn will sustain the generation of brand value. Example of technical data can be consulted at ...Visual Experiences
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Selected Previous News ..!
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December 10th, 2007. Quito, Ecuador NEW BRAND AND PRODUCT INNOVATION TRAINING PROGRAM The year 2007 has been a very productive year for DETERTEC's training programs. More than 150 marketing and R&D professionals from all over the Americas, assisted to courses on Innovation and Visual Experience and provided remarkable evaluations. Based on that, DETERTEC has announced and innovative and unique group of courses for 2008. These will cover the most important and modern topics on Brand and Product Innovation Strategies as well as Consumer´s Visual Experience Management, each focused on a different consumer product category: food and beverages, beauty and personal care, household care, and laundry. The series has been called Innovation and Visual Experience, and the first specific course will be offered on coming March 2008. On-site versions will be offered in a continuous base. More details about DETERTEC's training programs at ...Courses-English...Courses-Spanish
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September 28th, 2007. Quito, Ecuador OUTSTANDING COURSE ON VISUAL EXPERIENCES. FIRST STONE IS IN PLACE Senior and junior level professionals from marketing areas of multinational and regional companies working in Latin America participated in the first-ever-time course: The Consumer´s Visual Experience, held in Spanish during September 2007. The final courses evaluation was: Good (10%), Very Good (65%), Excellent (25%). Additional comments were: "excellent content", "excellent research", "invaluable, totally justified", "loved practical exercises", "superb tool for innovation", "easy to implement", "thank you very very much." These are remarkable evaluations and comments from experienced professionals, considering it was the first time edition of a training program focused to improve brand and product innovation trough the management of consumer visual experiences. A very innovative approach. From DETERTEC side, it provided valuable inputs to improve coming editions, and proved to have a tremendous potential to match current and future Clients needs. DETERTEC will continue offering the course on public and private base in Spanish and English. More details about DETERTEC's training programs at ...Courses-English...Courses-Spanish
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May 16th, 2007. Quito, Ecuador SASCOM, THE MAGAZINE OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FEATURES DETERTEC SASCOM, a leading magazine in the business intelligence and analytics sector, features DETERTEC's virtual R&D approach in the consumer industry, in a recent published special supplement about JMP 7. Other companies cited are: .. Georgia Institute of Technology's Aerospace Systems
Design Laboratory (ASDL) - USA The new JMP 7 was launched in May 2007 and offers the following features: JMP and SAS can connect, dynamic visualization - bubble plots, immersive visualization - scatterplot 3-D, instant subsets - dynamic data filtering, surveys and multiple responses, among others. The new JMP strategy is that JMP means business and the current focus is not only to scientist and engineers but to everyone. View the magazine at www.sas.com and JMP 7 at www.jmp.com More details of DETERTEC's innovations at Computer-based Technologies
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May 10th, 2007. Quito, Ecuador SUCCESSFUL TRAINING PROGRAM ON INNOVATION. REMARKABLE EVALUATIONS 32 senior high-level professionals, from Marketing and R&D departments, from multinational and regional companies from USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina and Spain, participated in our course: The New Innovation at the Laundry Market - Developing Regions, held in Spanish during April and May 2007. Everyone enjoyed lectures from Rodrigo Olmedo and around 20 pertinent laboratory observations in charge of Selena Guerra, both from DETERTEC, Ecuador. The final courses evaluation was: Good (1/32=3%), Very Good (13/32=41%), Excellent (18/32=56%). Attendees evaluations and comments showed outstanding results, better than our average on previous training programs. That is a clear confirmation that the new course matched and superpassed attendees expectations. DETERTEC will continue offering the course on private base in Spanish and English. More details about DETERTEC's training programs at ...Courses-English...Courses-Spanish
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February 16th, 2007. Quito, Ecuador DETERTEC IS THE TOP HISTORY OF JMP NEWSWIRE AND WILL CONDUCT A PRESENTATION AT JMP USER CONFERENCE DETERTEC is the top history of JMP Newswire February 2007 edition. The heading: "Washing Away R&D Worries in the Consumer Products Industry. DETERTEC uses JMP to virtualize consumers' visual perception, helping clients save time and money," introduces the history. The electronic newsletter is distributed to thousands of SAS and JMP users around the globe. See: http://www.jmp.com/about/newsletters/jmpnewswire/2007/200702.html The fourth annual edition of the famous JMP User Conference will be held at SAS Campus, located on Cary, USA, on June 11-15, 2007. Rodrigo Olmedo, principal of DETERTEC, will conduct a 60 minutes presentation at the Scientific Application category: In Silico Approach to Innovations with Perceived Customer Value More details of JMP User Conference 2007 at: http://support.sas.com/training/jmp/index.html More details of DETERTEC's innovations at Spectroscopy Technologies and Computer-based Technologies
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January 9th, 2007. Quito, Ecuador SAS CITES DETERTEC's VIRTUAL R&D SYSTEM We are very proud to announce that SAS, the world leader in business intelligence and analytical software, has chosen DETERTEC's Virtual R&D system as an Innovation to Success story. This important industry recognition refers to our innovative uses of JMP software, a business unit of SAS, to support new spectroscopy technologies as well as to build a novel consumer perception modelling and simulation system. A disruptive 'in silico' technologies to accelerate consumer products innovations with different cost structures and being more consumer-relevant. See full story at http://www.jmp.com/software/success/detertec.shtml As a small but award-winning entrepreneurial technology firm located in Ecuador, South America, DETERTEC feels honoured to be in the company of other leading-edge institutions that have received similar recognition from SAS in recent years. These institutions include: .. Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory, Georgia Tech (USA) This new distinction reinforces our commitment to stay in line with our clients' current and future needs focused to develop competitive technologies and products that improve consumer experiences. More details at Spectroscopy Technologies and Computer-based Technologies
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December 15th, 2006. Quito, Ecuador DETERTEC UPDATES GANZ WHITENESS MODEL TO NEW UNIFORM COLOUR SPACES Since the 70's Ganz whiteness model has been internationally accepted as a simple and useful model to estimate whiteness values with some level of correlation with panellist response evaluating whiteness under artificial daylight illumination. Two well used whiteness formulas based on the same model are the CIE whiteness formula and the so called Ganz whiteness formula, both are well known in the detergency industry. With the recent internationally acceptance of the new colour appearance models, several things have changed in colour measurements and estimations. Now colour attributes perception are well represented by J' for lightness, a' for red-green opponency and b' for yellow-blue opponency, which have much more significance than the basic values of Y, x, y, from the point of view of total appearance. DETERTEC obtained mathematically a new function based on J' a' b' starting from Y, x, y, which is a very complex function, but nearly a curved plane in the new uniform colour space. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a more simple quadric function represented by a quadric sheet with high level of correlation with the original Ganz values. See graphs at Modelling Whiteness.
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November 3rd, 2006. Quito, Ecuador ASTONISHED SUN SPECTRORADIOMETRY ON THE EQUINOX 2006 During the last Equinox (September 2006) DETERTEC conducted calibrated sun spectroradiometry measurements in Quito, latitude 0 degrees 2.800 m above the sea level, with the intention to expand its data base of ground level measurements at populated environments (more than 1.5 millions inhabitants). Measurements conducted in Albuquerque, New Mexico USA on July 1990 (noonday in a desert zone) has been used for some international standards as a reference of a high spectral measurement at ground level, which show negligible values below 300nm which in turns affects significantly to biological weighted UVB calculations like the UV Index and the UV Protection Factor. Measurements collected in Quito, show not only high values on the UVA regions but significantly higher values on the UVB regions than the aforementioned measurement. In line with that, the UV spectral measurement collected in Quito, can be considered as a reference of the highest value capable to be measured at ground level in a populated environment. It is important to keep in mind that Quito is the only city in the world with such a combination of geographical characteristics. More details at Sun Radiometry
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September 12th, 2006. Quito, Ecuador FOUR YEARS ON APPLIED PHOTONICS It was mid 2002 when Leeward Bean (Ocean Optics co-founder) conducted with Rodrigo Olmedo (DETERTEC co-founder) at Ocean Optics laboratory in Dunedin FL, USA, some preliminary test concerning the application of new spectrometers to measure luminescent fabric excitance and source of illuminations irradiance. That was the beginning of a productive relationship which has become one of the foundation to DETERTEC's innovative very-first-time developments:
Two others facts also contributed to the implementation and success of the aforementioned developments: recent advances on vision science about the visual appearance process at natural scenes (some from CIE), and the powerful graphic and programming capabilities of JMP software (SAS Institute). Our achievements in the area of applied photonics are good examples of our efficiency to innovate with limited financial resources, all come solely from business relationships with regional and global companies in the laundry sector. This is a good opportunity to reinforce our commitment to efficiently develop spectroscopy and computer-based technologies focused to understand actual consumer practices and realities around the world as a background to develop products and technologies with superior consumer value. More details at Spectroscopy Technologies.
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DETERTEC GOES 'IN SILICO' The year 2006 is shaping DETERTEC as an 'in silico' technology company. Mid of last year we began to apply full 'in silico' or virtual R&D procedures, which progressively started to be applied late 2003, but developed since year 2000. Up to know, we see our future as a different company in comparison with our 1994 vision. After mastering for more than a decade 'in vivo' and 'in vitro' techniques of detergency research, now we think that our movement toward the field of 'in silico' technologies is correctly in line with the new-century industry trends: accelerate the pace of innovation in a different time frame, with different cost structures, being collaborative, and significantly more consumer-relevant. Rested on innovative spectroscopy technologies, affordable numerical and graphical software capabilities, novel mesoscale models of surface's optical properties, recent colour appearance models, and statistical models of consumer perceptions at real market scenarios, DETERTEC's computer-based technologies are offering:
This is a unprecedented stage on DETERTEC history. The future arrived! More details at Computer-based Technologies.
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February 13th, 2006. Quito, Ecuador NEW SERIES OF ON-SITE COURSE AND WORKSHOPS With the aim to improve confidentiality and to cover private examples and specific topics, DETERTEC started this year offering the on-site version of its flagship course: Visual Perception of Washing Results. The course started in 2004 and has had a tremendous success due to its applicability to understand consumer cleanliness and whiteness perception under actual visual scenarios, a crucial topic to develop products with perceived consumer value. The new training approach: ON-SITE and CUSTOMISATION, is offering a significant increment on the cost/benefit ratio:
In line with that, workshops in the areas of: hand-washing, sources of illumination, natural radiation, and fabric fluorescence, will continue be offered on a private basis. See Courses for more details.
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January 20th, 2006. Quito, Ecuador QUANTIFYING COMPLEX VISUAL EXPERIENCES DURING WASHING Spectrometry of wet fabrics immersed on washing liquors is the new capability available from DETERTEC. Installed mid 2005 and tested during the last trimester, the new technology is providing unique data about radiant energy coming from a wet fabric at consumer-relevant washing liquors (using laundry powders, pastes or bars) under different sources of illuminations. In the detergency field, potential applications of this novel technology are:
The new technology is also supporting the DETERTEC's virtual R&D system. More details at Visual Experiences.
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November 9th, 2005. Quito, Ecuador JMP™ version 6.0 ARRIVED TO DETERTEC! Finally! The last version of JMP is now working at DETERTEC. Some of the new features of JMP have tremendous implications to our work: improved 3D surface analysis, which is linked to our geometric and analytical modelling capabilities to represent consumer whiteness and cleanliness perception, The experience with SAS products started in 1982 when Mr Rodrigo Olmedo (DETERTEC co-founder) used SAS/STAT and SAS/GRAPH as part of his thesis on Photochemistry of Edible Oils at Catholic University in Quito-ECUADOR. DETERTEC expertise with JMP software started in 1996 with version 3.1, as the statistical package to plan laboratory experiments and data analysis. JMP features included in version 4.0 (scripting) and 5.1 (interactive 3D graphics) have supported DETERTEC'S new spectroscopy and computer-based technologies. JMP™ is a trade mark of SAS INSTITUTE, Cary, NC, USA. www.jmp.com
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October 21st, 2005. Quito, Ecuador LaundryVisualSim™ IS NOW AT THE GLOBAL LAUNDRY MARKET In a short but emotive ceremony, DETERTEC launches to the global laundry market, LaundryVisualSim™, a new mesoscale modelling and simulation system focused to the laundry industry. This new 'in silico' technology has a special importance for DETERTEC, not only because is a crucial result after more than 5 year of dedication in the area of spectroscopy, vision science and computer modelling and simulation, but mainly because is a breakthrough step in the global laundry market: a disruptive technology. Rodrigo Olmedo, Director-General, shared with participants his confidence that the new technology will positive impact the market, due to its enormous potential on R&D cost structures, on R&D timeframes, and on consumer relevance features of laundry products and technologies. He congratulated the technical team for this 'historical step'. More details at LaundryVisualSim™
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September 7th, 2005. Quito, Ecuador NOVEL COLLAR AND CUFFS STAINED TEST FABRIC MODELS Consumer cleanliness assessment of laundry product is not equal around the world, but it has been found that some washing problems are nearly the same despite different cultures and habits. Consistently, remotion of easily perceived stains present on white collar and cuffs constitute one of the icons linked to final consumer value delivered by laundry products. Unfortunately this simple cleanliness perception fact from the consumer point of view, is a very complex process from the R&D perspective, not only due to the complexity of the inorganic and organic constituents of the stain, but also due to the interaction of different fabric surroundings (the area in direct contact with the skin and the rest of the collar area) on final consumer cleanliness perception. DETERTEC is proud to offer to laundry products R&D efforts a special constructed double-layered test fabric with different dingy surroundings that simulate a worn white collar, with two areas of fresh stain that mimic the combination of body and ambient soil. Clean and soiled dingy fabrics on the monitor can follow different laundry realities regarding dingy fabrics. More details at Test fabrics
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August 22nd, 2005. Quito, Ecuador A NEW CUSTOM-BUILT MINI SPECTROFLUORIMETER First semester 2005 was very active in the optical spectroscopy area of DETERTEC.Thanks to recent developments on UV LED light sources, solid state detectors arrays and thin film technologies, we were capable to built a customised non contact mini spectrofluorimeter to accurately determine, in absolute terms, spectroscopy properties of fluorescent materials full traceable to international standards. Specifically the new equipment is working on spectral characterisation of:
Absolute spectrometric properties of very small fabric areas (less than 6 mm2), like the strip-shaped remanent collar and cuffs stained area after some process of wash, and its fabric surrounding, as well as accurate determination of typical fluorescence spectroscopy properties like: quantum absorptance function, quantum yield, and total, reflected and luminescent radiation coming from the fabric and capable to reach our eyes, under relevant sources of illumination, including different phases of daylight, constitutes the foundation to model and simulate consumer whiteness and cleanliness perception. More details and examples can be viewed at Spectral Properties and Visual Experiences
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June 17th, 2005. Quito, Ecuador A NEW RECORD ON DAYLIGHT MEASUREMENT IS ESTABLISHED On June 17, 2005 at DETERTEC drying deck we have measured a blue sky source of illumination with a correlated colour temperature of 60,296 Kelvin degrees. The highest temperature registered and published for a natural source of illumination. Absolute and relative graphs in comparison with typical CIE D65 - 6,500 K can viewed at Visual Scenarios. The only previous similar reference is 60,000 K, that was taken in USA on September 18, 1939 and published on: .. Taylor, A., and Kerr, G., The Distribution of Energy in the Visible Spectrum of Daylight, JOSA, January, 1941, Vol. 31, 3-8. Lighting Research Laboratory, General Electric Company Obviously, at that time due to equipments and software limitations, only a few values for visible range was reported. Deep blue sky as a natural source of illumination during morning shows correlated colour temperature values of more than 20,000 K, if you include all surrounding present during laundry. Under those source of illuminations the influence of fluorescence on cleanliness and whiteness perception when consumer evaluate washing results is dominant. This and much more data and interpretation is shared during the On-Site Workshop offered by DETERTEC: "Source of Illuminations and Relevant Laundry Visual Scenarios". More details about training programs at Courses.
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Home | News | Company Profile | Services and Materials | Professional Training | Request for Information | Why DETERTEC?
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