Light field
A light field is a volume of light that is segmented into rays that have direction, magnitude, and optionally color. It is a method of representing light that includes the angle of each ray of light. It can be a volume of light treated as a set of rays, or a flat surface through which different angled light travels.
A light field is the set of light rays flowing through a surface or volume from every direction. It approximately represents how light travels in physical space, from a ray optics perspective. A light field can be viewed using a light field photograph. A light field can be displayed using a light field display, which is a type of multifocal display. It is possible to record a light field using a light field camera, such as a camera from Lytro.
A light field can be represented using a plenoptic function, which is a 5 dimensional function. A partial light field can be represented in 4 dimensions using the two-plane method.[1] That can result in a 4-dimensional function. However, it may be limited in focal depth. Light fields are useful for 3D because the largest or second largest factor that determines focus is the angle of rays coming into a human eye.
Mathematics[edit]
There are multiple ways to represent a light field using data. A method is the two-plane method, which results in a 4D representation.
A light field can be black and white or full color.
Light fields can be represented using euclidean spatial representation, instead of having to use a relativistic understanding.
History[edit]
Leonardo da Vinci explored the idea of a scene consisting of light rays of various angles.[2]
The term "light field" was used by A. Gershun in a research paper.
Work in light fields generated by a computer was done by Pat Hanrahan and Marc Levoy.[3]
Light field rendering research has focused on novel viewpoints for existing data, but largely for 2D screens.[4]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Gortler, Steven J.; Grzeszczuk, Radek; Szeliski, Richard; Cohen, Michael F. (1996). "The lumigraph". ACM. p. 43–54. doi:10.1145/237170.237200. ISBN 978-0-89791-746-9.
- ↑ http://lightfield-forum.com/2012/08/lightfield-history-who-invented-the-concept-of-the-light-field/
- ↑ "Light Field Rendering". http://www-graphics.stanford.edu/papers/light/.
- ↑ https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~dyer/cs534/papers/levoy-light-field-tutorial.pdf