Light field

About: Light field is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5357 publications have been published within this topic receiving 87424 citations.

The global structure of the visual light field and its relation to the physical light field.

Abstract: Human observers have been demonstrated to be sensitive to the local (physical) light field, or more precisely, to the primary direction, intensity, and diffuseness of the light at a point in a space. In the present study we focused on the question of whether it is possible to reconstruct the global visual light field, based on observers' inferences of the local light properties. Observers adjusted the illumination on a probe in order to visually fit it in three diversely lit scenes. For each scene they made 36 settings on a regular grid. The global structure of the first order properties of the light field could then indeed be reconstructed by interpolation of light vectors coefficients representing the local settings. We demonstrate that the resulting visual light fields (individual and averaged) can be visualized and we show how they can be compared to physical measurements in the same scenes. Our findings suggest that human observers have a robust impression of the light field that is simplified with respect to the physical light field. In particular, the subtle spatial variations of the physical light fields are largely neglected and the visual light fields were more similar to simple diverging fields than to the actual physical light fields.

Detection of light transformations and concomitant changes in surface albedo.

Abstract: We report two experiments demonstrating that (1) observers are sensitive to information about changes in the light field not captured by local scene statistics and that (2) they can use this information to enhance detection of changes in surface albedo. Observers viewed scenes consisting of matte surfaces at many orientations illuminated by a collimated light source. All surfaces were achromatic, all lights neutral. In the first experiment, observers attempted to discriminate small changes in direction of the collimated light source (light transformations) from matched changes in the albedos of all surfaces (non-light transformations). Light changes and non-light changes shared the same local scene statistics and edge ratios, but the latter were not consistent with any change in direction to the collimated source. We found that observers could discriminate light changes as small as 5 degrees with sensitivity d' > 1 and accurately judge the direction of change. In a second experiment, we measured observers' ability to detect a change in the surface albedo of an isolated surface patch during either a light change or a surface change. Observers were more accurate in detecting isolated albedo changes during light changes. Measures of sensitivity d' were more than twice as great.

Quantitative orbital angular momentum measurement of perfect vortex beams

Abstract: Perfect (optical) vortices (PVs) have the mooted ability to encode orbital angular momentum (OAM) onto the field within a well-defined annular ring. Although this makes the near-field radial profile independent of OAM, the far-field radial profile nevertheless scales with OAM, forming a Bessel structure. As yet, the quantitative measurement of the OAM of PVs has been elusive, with current detection protocols opting for more qualitative procedures using interference or mode sorters. Here, we show that the OAM content of a PV can be measured quantitatively using optical modal decomposition: an already widely utilized technique for decomposing an arbitrary light field into a set of basis functions. We outline the theory and confirm it by experiment with holograms written to spatial light modulators, highlighting the care required for accurate decomposition of the OAM content. Our work will be of interest to the large community who seek to use such structured light fields in various applications, including optical trapping and tweezing, and optical communications.

SMART: a light field image quality dataset

Abstract: In this contribution, the design of a Light Field image dataset is presented. It can be useful for design, testing, and benchmarking Light Field image processing algorithms. As first step, image content selection criteria have been defined based on selected image quality key-attributes, i.e. spatial information, colorfulness, texture key features, depth of field, etc. Next, image scenes have been selected and captured by using the Lytro Illum Light Field camera. Performed analysis shows that the proposed set of images is sufficient for addressing a wide range of attributes relevant for assessing Light Field image quality.

Optical decay from a Fabry-Perot cavity faster than the decay time

Abstract: The dynamical response of an optical Fabry–Perot cavity is investigated experimentally. We observe oscillations in the transmitted and the reflected light intensity if the frequency of the incoupled light field is rapidly changed. In addition, the decay of a cavity-stored light field is accelerated if the phase and the intensity of the incoupled light are switched in an appropriate way. The theoretical model by M. J. Lawrence [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B16, 523 (1999)] agrees with our observations.