Optics and Human Vision

The physics of light

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Light
 Light
 Particles known as photons
 Act as ‘waves’
 Two fundamental properties
 Amplitude
 Wavelength
 Frequency is the inverse of wavelength
 Relationship between wavelength (lambda) and frequency (f)

Where c = speed of light = 299,792,458 m / s

Diagram of a light wave.

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Light

Electromagnetic Spectrum

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Thin Lens Equation
 A lens is a transparent device that allows light to pass
through while causing it to either converge or diverge.
 Assume that a camera is focused on a target object using
a single converging lens:
 Let S1 be the distance from the lens to the target
 Let S2 be the distance from the lens to the film
 The focal length, f, is a measure of how strongly a lens
converges light
 The magnification factor, m, is another measure.
 The optical zoom of a digital camera is usually larger than 1
 The magnification factor of a single lens is usually less than 1

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Thin lens equation

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Optics and f-stop

 F-number is the ratio of focal length to the diameter of the aperture (lens
opening)
 F-stops are pre-defined aperture settings that are typically factors of 2 with
respect to amount of light allowed into the camera.
 Doubling “area” of a circle implies scaling the aperture diameter by
sqrt(2) or 1.4.
 F-stops are geometric sequences involving powers of the square-root
of 2.

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Human Visual System
 Human vision
 Cornea acts as a protective lens that roughly focuses
incoming light
 Iris controls the amount of light that enters the eye
 The lens sharply focuses incoming light onto the retina
 Absorbs both infra-red and ultra-violet light which can damage the
lens
 The retina is covered by photoreceptors (light sensors)
which measure light

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Anatomy of the Human Eye

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Human Eye

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Photoreceptors
 Rods
 Approximately 100-150 million rods
 Non-uniform distribution across the retina
 Sensitive to low-light levels (scotopic vision)
 Lower resolution

 Cones
 Approximately 6-7 million cones
 Sensitive to higher-light levels (photopic vision)
 High resolution
 Detect color by the use of 3 different kinds of cones each of
which is sensitive to red, green, or blue frequencies
 Red (L cone) : 564-580 nm wavelengths (65% of all cones)
 Green (M cone) : 534-545 nm wavelengths (30% of all cones)
 Blue (S cone) : 420-440 nm wavelengths (5% of all cones)

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Cone (LMS) and Rod (R) responses

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Photoreceptor density across retina

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Comparison between rods and cones

Rods Cones
Used for night vision Used for day vision
Loss causes night blindness Loss causes legal blindness
Low spatial resolution with higher noise High spatial resolution with lower noise
Not present in fovea Concentrated in fovea
Slower time response to light Quicker time response to light
One type of photosensitive pigment Three types of photosensitive pigment
Emphasis on motion detection Emphasis on detecting fine detail

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Color and Human Perception
 Chromatic light
 has a color component

 Achromatic light
 has no color component
 has only one property – intensity

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Human Visual Perception
 Light intensity:
 The lowest (darkest) perceptible intensity is the scotopic threshold
 The highest (brightest) perceptible intensity is the glare limit
 The difference between these two levels is on the order of 1010
 We can’t discriminate all these intensities at the same time! We adjust
to an average value of light intensities and then discriminate around the
average.

 Log compression.
 Experimental results show that the relationship between the
perceived amount of light and the actual amount of light in a scene
are generally related logarithmically.
 The human visual system perceives brightness as the logarithm of the actual
light intensity and interprets the image accordingly.
 Consider, for example, a bright light source that is approximately 6times
brighter than another. The eye will perceive the brighter light as
approximately twice the brightness of the darker.

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 Brightness Adaptation

Actual light intensity is (basically)

Human vision can see light between

The eye adjusts to an average value

Light appears black at the bottom of

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Brightness Adaptation and Mach Banding
 When viewing any scene:
 The eye rapidly scans across the field of view while coming
to momentary rest at each point of particular interest.
 At each of these points the eye adapts to the average
brightness of the local region surrounding the point of
interest.
 This phenomena is known as local brightness adaptation.
 Mach banding is a visual effect that results, in part, from local
brightness adaptation.
 The eye over-shoots/under-shoots at edges where the brightness
changes rapidly. This causes ‘false perception’ of the intensities
 Examples follow….

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Brightness Adaptation and Mach Banding

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Brightness Adaptation

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Simultaneous Contrast
 Simultaneous contrast refers to the way in which two
adjacent intensities (or colors) affect each other.
 Example: Note that a blank sheet of paper may appear white
when placed on a desktop but may appear black when used to
shield the eyes against the sun.
 Figure 2.9 is a common way of illustrating that the perceived
intensity of a region is dependent upon the contrast of the
region with its local background.
 The four inner squares are of identical intensity but are
contextualized by the four surrounding squares
 The perceived intensity of the inner squares varies from bright on the
left to dark on the right.

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Simultaneous Contrast

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 Chromatic Adaptation

What is the color of this flower?

The color above is actually green!

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