Patent ID: 8841848

Claim:
A method of controlling an illumination apparatus in which a light-emitting surface is formed by a single light-emitting panel or a plurality of light-emitting panels having a plurality of organic electroluminescence elements with different emission colors arranged in a stripe shape, the method comprising: a malfunction detection step of detecting a malfunction of each of the organic electroluminescence elements based on an electrical characteristic of the organic electroluminescence element; a short-circuit malfunction restoration step of performing short-circuit malfunction restoration processing on an element which is determined to be a short-circuit malfunction in the malfunction detection step; a short-circuit malfunction restoration determination step of determining whether or not the element which is determined to be the short-circuit malfunction is restored after the short-circuit malfunction restoration step; a malfunctioning element determination step of, when it is determined in the short-circuit malfunction restoration determination step that the element which is determined to be the short-circuit malfunction is not restored, repeating the short-circuit malfunction restoration step and the short-circuit malfunction restoration determination step, and when the number of determinations that the element which is determined to be the short-circuit malfunction is not restored exceeds a predetermined number of times, storing individual information including identification information of the element as a malfunctioning element in a storage; and a turn-on control step of controlling a turn-on state of the light-emitting surface based on a state of distribution of malfunctioning elements whose individual information is stored in the malfunctioning element determination step.