CIE: with an eye on global lighting
CIE: with an eye on global lighting
As its name implies, the International Commission on Illumination-abbreviated "CIE" based on its French name "Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage" - is an organization devoted to international cooperation and exchange of information among its member countries on all matters relating to the science and art of light and lighting.
The CIE is an autonomous organization. It was not created - nor is it controlled - by any other organization, political or otherwise. Instead, it has grown as a result of the efforts of interested individuals working in illumination.
Since its inception, the CIE has been accepted as the best authority on lighting-related subjects and, consequently, is recognized by the ISO and IEC as an international standardization body.
The CIE is a technical, scientific and cultural non-profit organization whose objectives are:
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To provide an international forum for discussing all matters relating to science, technology, and art in the fields of light and lighting, and for interchanging information in these fields between countries.
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To develop basic standards and metrological procedures in the fields of light and lighting.
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To provide guidance in the application of principles and procedures in the development of international and national standards in the fields of light and lighting.
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To prepare and publish standards, reports, and other publications concerned with all matters relating to science, technology, and art in the fields of light and lighting.
- To maintain liaisons and technical interactions with other international organizations concerned with matters related to the science, technology, standardization, and art in the fields of light and lighting.
Every four years the CIE holds a session, hosted by one of the member countries, which serves the very useful purpose of bringing together all representatives of the national committees interested in the technical activities of the organization. The sessions involve the presentation of papers as well as meetings of division and technical committees. During each session the General Assembly meets to review and discuss the administrative and technical affairs of the CIE, make plans for the future, and elect officers for the coming four years. The 23rd session of the CIE was held in New Delhi, India, in November 1995.
There is growing interest in energy-efficient lighting in the CIE. Given the enormous scope of opportunities for energy savings today and the steady rate of technological innovation, many groups around the world are promoting energy-efficient lighting. In view of its authority and global network, the CIE is in an ideal position to play a key role in the continued progress towards developing more energy-efficient lighting, and indeed, a number of technical committees dealing with specific aspects of this broad topic have already been established.
In an effort to achieve increased coordination with other lighting groups, CIE invited IAEEL to organize a workshop in cooperation with CIE's Technical Committee 3-24 (Energy Aspects of Lighting, Division 3). (See CIE-IAEEL workshop in Delhi, IAEEL newsletter 3-4/95; for a longer version, see paper by Evan Mills.)
The primary aim of the workshop was to identify key agenda items that CIE could pursue in the future, possibly in collaboration with IAEEL, in order to enhance the CIE's role in international efforts to promote energy-efficient lighting.
IAEEL FOLLOW-UP
NUTEK and its Netherlands counterpart, NOVEM, have provided funding for the IAEEL to follow up on the workshop's initiatives. To this end the IAEEL took up the task of scanning the proceedings on the issue of energy efficiency in conjunction with lighting and to extract relevant information. Results are published as a review and are also available on the IAEEL homepage on the Internet. Some 40 papers and posters featuring aspects of energy efficiency are compiled in the review.
Cross cutting the proceedings of the 23rd session of the CIE revealed the existence of a triangle of interrelated key components of efficient lighting: perception, energy efficiency, and quality. None of these can be considered separately, and any shift in the value of one of them will inevitably influence the other two.
CIE PUBLICATIONS
The review, including (short) versions of some "energy papers", can be accessed via the IAEEL homepage.
Vol. I of the Proceedings of the 23rd Session of the CIE, New Delhi (Publ. CIE 119-1995), contains the text of the presented papers and posters as well as introductions to the eight workshops. Vol. II of the proceedings contains the invited papers and technical and administrative reports. Both volumes can be ordered from the CIE Central Bureau.
The CIE also publishes standards, technical reports and other technical publications prepared by the technical committees and the divisions, as well as the proceedings of the sessions and symposia. More than 100 such publications have been issued. Joint publications include the IEC/CIE International Lighting Vocabulary and ISO/CIE Standards. The CIE technical reports are also available as a CD-ROM. CIE organizes scientific symposia as well.
MORE INFORMATION
CIE information can be obtained via the Internet. A CIE home page is on WWW and can be reached via CIE's Site in Vienna, Austria at http://www.cie.co.at/cie/home.html which is mirrored by a site in Japan at: http://www.hike.te.chiba-u.ac.jp/ikeda/CIE/home.html
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