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Peter Schnegg
Flicker and Flickermeter Panensa S.A., Switzerland Abstract As the human eye is a very sensitive captor, small light fluctuations can be detected. For instance, in case of electrical lighting systems, very low voltage fluctuations on the supplied lamps can be recognized. This annoyance produces undesirable and sometimes unexplained effects as headache, tiredness, etc. This phenomena is of course related to the sensitivity and the reaction of individuals can only be studied on statistical basis and experimentations. Compared to other optical equipments as TV sets, computer screens, halogen lamps, the most sensitive equipment is the lamp, especially the coiled-coil filament lamp. The flicker problem, initially recognized by surveys was argumented by tests on individuals. Later, one starts to be interested in the physiological response of the lamp-eye-brain chain, which turns out to be a very non-linear and complex neurophysical system.
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