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Imaging System

This is the imaging system of computer graphics

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Gayu Gayu
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13 views5 pages

Imaging System

This is the imaging system of computer graphics

Uploaded by

Gayu Gayu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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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IMAGING SYSTEMS

 There are two imaging systems: the pinhole camera and the human visual system.
 The pinhole camera is a simple example of an imaging system that will enable us to
understand the functioning of cameras and of other optical imagers. We emulate it to build
a model of image formation.
 The human visual system is extremely complex but still obeys the physical principles of
other optical imaging systems. We introduce it not only as an example of an imaging
system but also because understanding its properties will help us to exploit the capabilities
of computer-graphics systems.

The Pinhole Camera

 The pinhole camera in Figure 1.19 provides an example of image formation.


 A pinhole camera is a box with a small hole in the center of one side of the box; the film is
placed inside the box on the side opposite the pinhole.
 We assume that the hole is so small that only a single ray of light, emanating from a point,
can enter it. The film plane is located a distance d from the pinhole.
A side view (Figure 1.20) allows us to calculate where the image of the point (x, y, z) is on the
film plane z =−d.

Using the fact that the two triangles in Figure 1.20 are similar, we find that the y coordinate of the
image is at yp, where

The point (xp, yp, −d) is called the projection of the point (x, y, z). In our idealized model, the color
on the film plane at this point will be the color of the point (x, y, z).

The field, or angle, of view of our camera is the angle made by the largest object that our camera
can image on its film plane.

If h is the height of the camera, the angle of view θ is

The ideal pinhole camera has an infinite depth of field: Every point within its field of view is in
focus. Every point in its field of view projects to a point on the back of the camera.
 The pinhole camera has two disadvantages.
o First, because the pinhole is so small—it admits only a single ray from a point
source—almost no light enters the camera.
o Second, the camera cannot be adjusted to have a different angle of view.

 By replacing the pinhole with a lens, we solve the two problems of the pinhole camera.
o First, the lens gathers more light than can pass through the pinhole. The larger the
aperture of the lens, the more light the lens can collect.
o Second, by picking a lens with the proper focal length—a selection equivalent to
choosing d for the pinhole camera—we can achieve any desired angle of view (up
to 180 degrees). Lenses, however, do not have an infinite depth of field: Not all
distances from the lens are in focus.

The Human Visual System

 Our extremely complex visual system has all the components of a physical imaging system,
such as a camera or a microscope.
 Light enters the eye through the lens and cornea, a transparent structure that protects the
eye.
 The iris opens and closes to adjust the amount of light entering the eye.
 The lens forms an image on a two-dimensional structure called the retina at the back of the
eye.
 The rods and cones (so named because of their appearance when magnified) are light
sensors and are located on the retina.
 They are excited by electromagnetic energy in the range of 350 to 780 nm.
 The rods are low-level-light sensors that account for our night vision and are not color
sensitive; the cones are responsible for our color vision.
 The sizes of the rods and cones, coupled with the optical properties of the lens and cornea,
determine the resolution of our visual systems, or our visual acuity.
 Resolution is a measure of what size objects we can see. More technically, it is a measure
of how close we can place two points and still recognize that there are two distinct points.
 The sensors in the human eye do not react uniformly to light energy at different
wavelengths.
 There are three types of cones and a single type of rod.
 Whereas intensity is a physical measure of light energy, brightness is a measure of how
intense we perceive the light emitted from an object to be.
 The human visual system does not have the same response to a monochromatic (single-
frequency) red light as to a monochromatic green light. If these two lights were to emit the
same energy, they would appear to us to have different brightness, because of the unequal
response of the cones to red and green light.
 We are most sensitive to green light, and least sensitive to red and blue.

 Brightness is an overall measure of how we react to the intensity of light.


 Human color-vision capabilities are due to the different sensitivities of the three types of
cones.
 The major consequence of having three types of cones is that instead of having to work
with all visible wavelengths individually, we can use three standard primaries to
approximate any color that we can perceive.
 Consequently, most image-production systems, including film and video, work with just
three basic, or primary, colors.
 The initial processing of light in the human visual system is based on the same principles
used by most optical systems.
 However, the human visual system has a back end much more complex than that of a
camera or telescope.
 The optic nerves are connected to the rods and cones in an extremely complex arrangement
that has many of the characteristics of a sophisticated signal processor.
 The final processing is done in a part of the brain called the visual cortex, where high-level
functions, such as object recognition, are carried out.
 We shall omit any discussion of high-level processing; instead, we can think simply in
terms of an image that is conveyed from the rods and cones to the brain.

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