A Method for Computing Spectral Reflectance

Abstract

Psychophysical experiments show that the perceived colour of an object is relatively independent of the spectrum of the incident illumination and depends only on the surface reflectance. We demonstrate a possible solution to this underdetermined problem by expanding the illumination and surface reflection in terms of a finite number of basis functions. This yields a number of nonlinear equations for each colour patch. We show that given a sufficient number of surface patches with the same illumination it is possible to solve these equations up to an overall scaling factor. Generalizations to the spatial dependent situation are discussed. We define a method for detecting material changes and illustrate a way of detecting the colour of a material at its boundaries and propagating it inwards. Keywords include: color; material edges; basis functions; mondrians.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1984
Accession Number
ADA150172

Entities

People

  • A. Yuille

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Absorption
  • Absorption Coefficients
  • Ambiguity
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Boundaries
  • Computational Science
  • Equations
  • Illuminants
  • Illumination
  • Light Sources
  • Massachusetts
  • Materials
  • Military Research
  • Perception
  • Reflectance
  • Reflectivity
  • Standards

Readers

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