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Review: Solid Angle: Angle Transverse Distance at A Distance Solid Angle

The document is a review of the concept of solid angle and how it relates to luminance, illumination, and how light intensity falls off with distance. It discusses solid angle as the equivalent of transverse area at a distance, and defines luminance and illumination as the amount of light energy per unit area per unit solid angle per unit time. It then explains how light intensity from a point source falls off as the inverse square of the distance, and how intensity falls off differently depending on the type of light source and its distance.

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MD2889
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112 views11 pages

Review: Solid Angle: Angle Transverse Distance at A Distance Solid Angle

The document is a review of the concept of solid angle and how it relates to luminance, illumination, and how light intensity falls off with distance. It discusses solid angle as the equivalent of transverse area at a distance, and defines luminance and illumination as the amount of light energy per unit area per unit solid angle per unit time. It then explains how light intensity from a point source falls off as the inverse square of the distance, and how intensity falls off differently depending on the type of light source and its distance.

Uploaded by

MD2889
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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review: solid angle

in recent years I have been surprised to find that many students taking this course are not comfortable with the concept of solid angle, so here is a brief review

angle transverse distance at a distance solid angle transverse area at a distance

16722 [email protected] We:20090114

end-to-end example

luminance (as I use the term)


the light energy (usually already integrated over the spectral range of interest) per unit area (of the source) per unit solid angle (in the direction of interest) per unit time leaving the source surface watt/(m2 steradian) if not integrated over color then watt/(m2 steradian Hz) fundamentally for self-luminous sources to keep terminology simple*, I will also use this word for the light leaving an illuminated surface
end-to-end example 2

16722 [email protected] We:20090114

illumination (as I use the term)


the light energy (usually already integrated over the spectral range of interest) per unit area (of a target) per unit solid angle (in the direction of the source) per unit time reaching the target surface watt/(m2 steradian) [or watt/(m2 steradian Hz)] fundamentally of interest for illuminated targets to keep terminology simple, I will also use this word for the light reaching a sensor
end-to-end example

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how it falls off with distance


crucial to know who means what by it! consider illumination from an idealized point source of light the energy per unit area (normal to the direction of the point source) per unit time falling on a target (or a sensor) falls off as 1/distance2 but a real source is an area, never a point if very close, it doesnt fall off at all with distance if line-like and not too close it falls off as distance-1
end-to-end example 4

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from scene to lens


consider a small area AS of a scene emitting pS watt/(m2 steradian) in the spectral range of interest in the direction of the lens the power collected by lens PL is then PL = AS pS rL2 cosSL/(dSL/cosSL)2 this power is delivered by the lens to the sensor but to what area of the sensor? (of course, this treatment ignores all the actual losses to scattering, absorption, etc)
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ps

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from lens to sensor (detector D)


lens equation: 1/dSL + 1/dLD = 1/f for simplicity, assume dLD << dSL so dLD f image area Ai corresponding to scene area AS is then given by ratios Ai/f 2 = AS/dSL2 so the power per unit area on the sensor is pD=(ASpSrL2cos3SL/dSL2)/((AS/cosSL)f2/dSL2) = pS cos4SL (rL/f )2 = ( /4) pS cos4LD / f-number2 so scene-to-camera distance doesnt matter! but it says image gets dimmer as cos4
end-to-end example

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dsl

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so what will the ultimate signal be?


we found pD ~ pS / f-number2 what does that tell us about the signal we can expect to see from the sensor? it depends on the sensor!
typical sensor output (CCD signal voltage, photographic film blackness) is proportional to pd times exposure time (independent of pixel area for CCD, but not for film!) others might deliver, e.g., output current proportional to pd times pixel area (but independent of exposure time!)

sensing is the preceding fundamentals sensors are these still-open details


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but it says image gets dimmer as cos4LD

and if you look at OLD photographs it does!


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assignment
5) For a scene illuminated by typical Pittsburgh sunlight (how many watts/m ?) estimate the

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