Living Worlds

Research · Sound and space · Oct 11, 2026

Daylight at the desk, on days nobody had read

Metsix desks, 11 days held out

The test at a glance

What it tests
Accuracy against reality: desk illuminance every ten minutes.
Data
IEA EBC Annex 81 dataset 5, LBNL FLEXLAB cells A and B, July-August 2020; six desk sensors; development on cell A before 1 August.
Held out
Cell A, 1-11 August 2020 (802 steps). The mirror-image cell B is reported apart.
Compared against
Calibrated physics (12 parameters fitted); a learned model.
Bar
Root-mean-square error lower than both on the held-out days.
Result
58.1 lux against 115.3 and 64.3: met. Cell B: 94.8 against 138.9 and 96.6.

Living Worlds predicted the daylight on six desks of a real office at Berkeley Lab every ten minutes, for eleven days it had never seen, with a root-mean-square error of 58.1 lux: ahead of calibrated physics (115.3) and a learned model (64.3). It roughly halved the physics error at the desks nearest the window, where the light changes most. Registered before the data was read; scored once.

Protocol, result and scorer

Protocol Result

Next

Rooms read from building plans, light fittings as well as the sky, and a second office measured in the same way.

Sound and space

More in this area.

Oct 5, 2026 Sound and space Sound beyond what was measured Met Oct 5, 2026 Sound and space A room never seen, one configuration at a time Met (20 of 20) Oct 5, 2026 Sound and space A second room Not met Oct 10, 2026 Sound and space Four rooms never seen, from twelve measured positions Met (4 of 4 rooms)
All research