Significance of View Direction in Simulating Circadian Potential of Architectural Spaces

This research paper aims to simplify the question of how to take human movement into account when assessing the lighting conditions of a space. For a person working at a desk throughout the day doing paper-based or screen-based tasks, if it is assumed that they tend to look primarily in the direction of their work plane, does simulating a single viewpoint differ significantly from simulating three or five viewpoints? If so, under what conditions do the number of viewpoints matter to the accuracy of the simulation? A hypothesis is proposed that factors that increase the proportion of diffuse light to direct light in the view plane will decrease the importance of number of viewpoints. For example, a north-facing office will primarily receive reflected light through its windows, so simulating multiple viewpoints will not noticeably improve an assessment of the circadian potential of the space. This information could both help those trying to determine the healthy lighting potential of an unbuilt office and those trying to design real-life experiments to assess the lighting in an extant space.