STARS: enlightenment in the office space for behavioral change

Distractions in the office do not only disturb co-workers and prevent them from being productive, but also cost the company a lot of money. The following paper describes an ambient lighting system for large office spaces called STARS. It is intended to support self-guided changes towards less distracting behaviors of workers, in respect to their loudness. With variations of brightness, color, and pulsing at a defined threshold of measured loudness in the respective location, the ceiling unobtrusively visualizes the sound level to the person being the source of noise. The lighting system communicates through the internet with a smartphone app that kindly proposes a nearby, available meeting room to the bothersome person. The following paper describes the components of the system, as well as their relation to existing behavioral change theories from psychology.