Atmosphere Metrics

Abstract

This paper presents a method to quantify the atmosphere of an environment as experienced by human observers. Atmosphere is defined as the experience of the surrounding in relation to ourselves, through the perception of external elements and internal sensations. An atmosphere does not necessarily give rise to a particular feeling, it only has the potency of changing people’s affective state. Hence, methodologies to measure mood and emotion cannot be used. The new tool consists of a semantic differential rating scale for atmosphere perception in combination with a factor analysis. Two experiments are presented that demonstrate the usability and applicability of the method.