Design of an image-based BRDF measurement method using a catadioptric multispectral capture and a real-time Lambert calibration.

By utilizing a catadioptric system and a calibration Lambertian sample, a compact measurement method of bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) has been proposed for rapid and accurate measurement. With the help of an ellipsoidal dome mirror, a hyperboloid mirror, and a high-resolution camera, spatial reflectance distributions from reflected directions with a large field of view (FOV) can be obtained. The built-in Lambertian standard allows for real-time calibration to account for fluctuations in the illumination spectrum, effectively reducing the measurement drift and achieving a high accuracy. Moreover, a multispectral camera captures images at 8 spectral bands for accurate spectral color reconstruction from different directions. To verify the method, a prototype capable of fast, high-resolution measurements with a large FOV has been developed for characterizing the scattering properties of objects. It achieves a measured angular range up to 160°. Multispectral BRDF data for each sample can be obtained within 5 minutes with an angular resolution of less than 0.6°. Eight ceramic samples with different colors were selected for the verification of measurement accuracy, and their mean relative bias of BRDF measurement was found to be as low as 2.5%.

Facility for spectral radiance calibration at low light level.

The spectral radiance measurement at daytime level can be realized with high accuracy, while it's difficult when the spectral radiance is at nighttime level. We design a spectral radiance calibration facility which has the characteristics of completely unchanged spectrum over 3 orders of magnitude and approximately unchanged spectrum for about 6 orders of magnitude. It combines a spectral radiance light source, a precision aperture and a white diffuser together, make it easy to reproduce the spectral radiance at 380 nm from 4 × 10-9 W/(m2·sr·nm) to 4 × 10-3 W/(m2·sr·nm). The facility can be easily used to calibrate a spectroradiometer at nighttime level. When the spectral radiance from 380 nm to 780 nm is around 1 × 10-7W/(m2·sr·nm), the calibration uncertainty of the spectroradiometer is 0.87%∼1.0% (k = 1).

Effect of surrounding objects in the adapting scene on chromatic adaptation.

Most of the existing chromatic adaptation transforms (CATs) were developed for flat uniform stimuli presented in a uniform background, which substantially simplifies the complexity of the real scene by excluding surrounding objects from the viewing field. The impact of the background complexity, in terms of the spatial properties of the objects surrounding the stimulus, on chromatic adaptation is ignored in most CATs. This study systematically investigated how the background complexity and color distribution affect the adaptation state. Achromatic matching experiments were conducted in an immersive lighting booth, with the illumination varying in chromaticity and the adapting scene varying in surrounding objects. Results show that compared to the uniform adapting field, increasing the scene complexity can significantly improve the degree of adaptation for the Planckian illuminations with low CCT levels. In addition, the achromatic matching points are substantially biased by the color of the surrounding object, implying the interactive effect of the illumination color and the dominant scene color on the adapting white point.

Transition type influences the adaptation state under dichromatic illuminations.

The CATs models proposed over these years (such as CMCCAT97, CAT02 and CAT16) were derived from simple stimuli surrounded by a uniform background with a single illuminant. However, the real scene always consists of more than one illumination, especially in many artificially lit environments. Some previous studies indicate an influence of the transition type between two illuminations on the adaptation state, but the visual data is insufficient to conclude a general trend applicable for any color pair. To systematically investigate how the transition type and illumination color pair interactively influence the adapted white point and degree of adaptation, a series of achromatic matching experiments were conducted under (simultaneously) spatially dichromatic illuminations. Transition type was found to have an impact on the adaptation state, but it is significant only for an illumination pair with a large color difference. In addition, for those sharp-transitioned dichromatic illuminations, the illumination that more easily gets adapted tends to have a higher contribution to the adapted white point than the other one. A more comprehensive CAT model for dichromatic illuminations was derived from the collected visual data.

Laser differential confocal radius measurement system.

A laser differential confocal radius measurement system with high measurement accuracy is developed for optical manufacturing and metrology. The system uses the zero-crossing point of the differential confocal intensity curve to precisely identify the cat's-eye and confocal positions and uses an interferometer to measure the distance between these two positions, thereby achieving a high-precision measurement for the radius of curvature. The coaxial measuring optical path reduces the Abbe error, and the air-bearing slider reduces the motion error. The error analysis indicates the theoretical accuracy of the system is up to 2 ppm, and the experiment shows that the system has high focusing sensitivity and is little affected by environmental fluctuations; the measuring repeatability is between 4 and 12 ppm.

Laser differential confocal radius measurement.

A new laser differential confocal radius measurement (DCRM) is proposed for high precision measurement of radius. Based on the property of an axial intensity curve that the absolute zero precisely corresponds to the focus of the objective in a differential confocal system (DCS), DCRM uses the zero point of the DCS axial intensity curve to precisely identify the cat's-eye and confocal positions of the test lens, and measures the accurate distance between the two positions to achieve the high-precision measurement of radius of curvature (ROC). In comparison with the existing measurement methods, DCRM proposed has a high measurement precision, a strong environmental anti-interference capability and a low cost. The theoretical analyses and preliminary experimental results indicate that DCRM has a relative measurement error of better than 5 ppm.

Lenses axial space ray tracing measurement.

In order to achieve the precise measurement of the lenses axial space, a new lenses axial space ray tracing measurement (ASRTM) is proposed based on the geometrical theory of optical image. For an assembled lenses with the given radius of curvature r(n) and refractive index nn of every lens, ASRTM uses the annular laser differential confocal chromatography focusing technique (ADCFT) to achieve the precise focusing at the vertex position P(n) of its inner-and-outer spherical surface Sn and obtain the coordinate z(n) corresponding to the axial movement position of ASRTM objective, and then, uses the ray tracing facet iterative algorithm to precisely determine the vertex position P(n) of every spherical surface by these coordinates z(n), refractive index n(n) and spherical radius r(n), and thereby obtaining the lenses inner axial space d(n). The preliminary experimental results indicate that ASRTM has a relative measurement error of less than 0.02%.

Laser differential confocal ultra-long focal length measurement.

A new laser differential confocal focal-length measurement method is proposed for the measurement of an ultra-long focal-length. The approach proposed uses the property of an axial intensity curve that the absolute zero precisely corresponds to the focus of the objective in a differential confocal focusing system (DCFS) to measure the variation in position of DCFS focus with and without a measured ultra-long focal-length lens (UFL), uses the distance between the two focuses to obtain the UFL focal-length, and thereby achieving the precise measurement of ultra-long focal-length. The method has a high focusing precision, a strong anti-interference capability and a short measurement light-path. The theoretical analyses and preliminary experimental results indicate that the relative measurement error is about 0.01% when the method is used for the measurement of back-focus-distance (BFD).