Chasing the green flash: a global illumination solution for inhomogeneous media

Several natural phenomena, such as mirages or the green flash, are owed to inhomogeneous media in which the index of refraction is not constant. This makes the light rays travel a curved path while going through those media. One way to simulate global illumination in inhomogeneous media is to use a curved ray tracing algorithm, but this approach presents some problems that still need to be solved. This paper introduces a full solution to the global illumination problem, based on what we have called curved photon mapping, that can be used to simulate several natural atmospheric phenomena. We also present a model of the Human Visual System (HVS) to display images in a more realistic way, taking into account how we perceive luminances in a real-world scene. This is of special interest in the green flash effect, where some of the perceived green is owed to bleaching of the photoreceptors in the human eye.

[1]  W A RUSHTON,et al.  Cone pigment kinetics in the deuteranope , 1965, The Journal of physiology.

[2]  Donald P. Greenberg,et al.  Time-dependent visual adaptation for fast realistic image display , 2000, SIGGRAPH.

[3]  J. Walraven,et al.  Perceived colour under conditions of chromatic adaptation: Evidence for gain control by π mechanisms , 1981, Vision Research.

[4]  M. G. J. Minnaert,et al.  Light and color in the outdoors , 1993 .

[5]  Wilson S. Geisler,et al.  The effects of photopigment depletion on brightness and threshold , 1978, Vision Research.

[6]  Eduard Gröller,et al.  Nonlinear ray tracing: Visualizing strange worlds , 1995, The Visual Computer.

[7]  Nancy Levit,et al.  Ray tracing mirages , 1990, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[8]  F. Kenton Musgrave,et al.  A note on ray tracing mirages (comments and author's reply) , 1990, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[9]  Jos Stam,et al.  Ray Tracing in Non-Constant Media , 1996, Rendering Techniques.

[10]  F. K. Musgrave.  Methods for realistic landscape imaging , 1993 .

[11]  Andrew S. Glassner,et al.  Principles of Digital Image Synthesis , 1995 .

[12]  Andrew S. Glassner,et al.  An introduction to ray tracing , 1989 .

[13]  W. Rushton.  Review Lecture. Pigments and signals in colour vision , 1972 .

[14]  W. Rushton,et al.  Bleaching and regeneration of cone pigments in man. , 1968, Vision research.

[15]  Gunther Wyszecki,et al.  Color Science: Concepts and Methods, Quantitative Data and Formulae, 2nd Edition , 2000 .

[16]  W. Rushton.  Pigments and signals in colour vision. , 1972, The Journal of physiology.

[17]  R. Harwerth,et al.  Effects of intense visible radiation on the increment-threshold spectral sensitivity of the rhesus monkey eye , 1975, Vision Research.

[18]  H. Jensen.  Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping , 2001 .

[19]  Christine D. Piatko,et al.  A Visibility Matching Tone Reproduction Operator for High Dynamic Range Scenes , 1997, IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph..

[20]  Roman Kuchkuda,et al.  An introduction to ray tracing , 1993, Comput. Graph..

[21]  J. Pokorny,et al.  Color matching and the Stiles-Crawford effect in observers with early age-related macular changes. , 1988, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics and image science.

[22]  Backward Ray Tracing.  Backward Ray Tracing , 1986 .

[23]  Leonidas J. Guibas,et al.  Bidirectional Estimators for Light Transport , 1995 .

[24]  A T Young,et al.  Sunset science. III. Visual adaptation and green flashes. , 2000, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[25]  W. Geisler.  Evidence for the equivalent-background hypothesis in cones , 1979, Vision Research.

[26]  J. Cohen,et al.  Color Science: Concepts and Methods, Quantitative Data and Formulas , 1968 .

[27]  W A RUSHTON,et al.  The density of chlorolabe in the foveal cones of the protanope , 1963, The Journal of physiology.

[28]  R. Harwerth,et al.  Prolonged Color Blindness Induced by Intense Spectral Lights in Rhesus Monkeys , 1971, Science.

[29]  W. Lehn,et al.  Novaya Zemlya effect and sunsets. , 2003, Applied optics.

[30]  A. J. Preetham.  Modeling Skylight and Aerial Perspective , 2003 .

[31]  Tomoyuki Nishita,et al.  Light Scattering Models for the Realistic Rendering of Natural Scenes , 1998, Rendering Techniques.

[32]  R. Haber,et al.  Visual Perception , 2018, Encyclopedia of Database Systems.

[33]  Francisco J. Serón,et al.  Implementation of a method of curved ray tracing for inhomogeneous atmospheres , 2005, Comput. Graph..

[34]  Christine D. Piatko,et al.  A visibility matching tone reproduction operator for high dynamic range scenes , 1997, SIGGRAPH '97.