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International audience; The goal of Mixed Reality (MR) is to achieve a seamless and realistic blending between real and virtual worlds. This requires the estimation of reflectance properties and lighting characteristics of the real scene. One of the main challenges within this task consists in recovering such properties using a single RGB-D camera. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework to recover both the position and color of multiple light sources as well as the specular reflectance of real scene surfaces. This is achieved by detecting and incorporating information from both specular reflections and cast shadows. Our approach is capable of handling any textured surface and considers both static and dynamic light sources. Its effectiveness is demonstrated through a range of applications including visually-consistent mixed reality scenarios (e.g. correct real specularity removal, coherent shadows in terms of shape and intensity) and retexturing where the texture of the scene is altered whereas the incident lighting is preserved.

Understanding and management of light is of great importance for nanoscale devices. This report demonstrates enhanced absorption, photoluminescence and scattering in InP nanowires when coated with dielectric polymer shell. The shells increase absorption and emission by a factor of ~2 and photoluminescence by a factor of ~4. A thorough optical characterization is provided, including reflectance, transmission, luminescence and scattering to incident and transmitted directions. From this characterization, we derive the distribution of absorbed light within the structure (InP nanowires, Au seed particles and the substrate). Additionally, reflectance, transmission and emission are shown to become increasingly diffuse with the dielectric shells. The results are thought to provide better understanding in light-matter interaction in nanostructures, as well as to provide valuable tools for light and scattering management in nanoscale optoelectronics.

We present a novel approach to real-time dense visual simultaneous localisation and mapping. Our system is capable of capturing comprehensive dense globally consistent surfel-based maps of room scale environments and beyond explored using an RGB-D camera in an incremental online fashion, without pose graph optimization or any post-processing steps. This is accomplished by using dense frame-to-model camera tracking and windowed surfel-based fusion coupled with frequent model refinement through non-rigid surface deformations. Our approach applies local model-to-model surface loop closure optimizations as often as possible to stay close to the mode of the map distribution, while utilizing global loop closure to recover from arbitrary drift and maintain global consistency. In the spirit of improving map quality as well as tracking accuracy and robustness, we furthermore explore a novel approach to real-time discrete light source detection. This technique is capable of detecting numerous light sources in indoor environments in real-time as a user handheld camera explores the scene. Absolutely no prior information about the scene or number of light sources is required. By making a small set of simple assumptions about the appearance properties of the scene our method can incrementally estimate both the quantity and location of multiple light sources in the environment in an online fashion. Our results demonstrate that our technique functions well in many different environments and lighting configurations. We show that this enables (a) more realistic augmented reality rendering; (b) a richer understanding of the scene beyond pure geometry and; (c) more accurate and robust photometric tracking.

With the recent increase in numbers of small and versatile low-power meteor radars, the opportunity exists to benefit from simultaneous application of multiple systems spaced by only a few hundred km and less. Transmissions from one site can be recorded at adjacent receiving sites using various degrees of forward scatter, potentially allowing atmospheric conditions in the mesopause regions between stations to be diagnosed. This can allow a better spatial overview of the atmospheric conditions at any time. Such studies have been carried out using a small version of such so-called multistatic meteor radars, e.g. Chau et al. (Radio Sci 52:811–828, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016rs006225 ). These authors were able to also make measurements of vorticity and divergence. However, measurement uncertainties arise which need to be considered in any application of such techniques. Some errors are so severe that they prohibit useful application of the technique in certain locations, particularly for zones at the midpoints of the radars sites. In this paper, software is developed to allow these errors to be determined, and examples of typical errors involved are discussed. The software should be of value to others who wish to optimize their own MMR systems.

We considered whether optic flow generated by 3D relief of a foreground surface might influence visually-mediated self-motion perception (vection). We generated background motion consistent with self-rotation, and a foreground object with bumpy relief was either rotated with the observer (ego-centric) or fixed in world coordinates (world-centric). We found that vection strength ratings were greater in conditions with world-centric retinal motion of the foreground object, despite generating flow that was opposite to background motion. This effect was explained by observer judgments of the axis self-rotation in depth; whereas ego-centric flow generated experiences of more on-axis self-rotation, world-centric flow generated experiences of centrifugal rotation around the foreground object. These data suggest that foreground object motion can increase the perception of self-motion generated by optic flow, even when they reduce net retinal motion coherence and promote conditions for multisensory conflict. This finding supports the view that self-motion perception depends on mid-level representations of whole-scene motion.

Light interacts with an organism's integument on a variety of spatial scales. For example in an iridescent bird: nano-scale structures produce color; the milli-scale structure of barbs and barbules largely determines the directional pattern of reflected light; and through the macro-scale spatial structure of overlapping, curved feathers, these directional effects create the visual texture. Milli-scale and macro-scale effects determine where on the organism's body, and from what viewpoints and under what illumination, the iridescent colors are seen. Thus, the highly directional flash of brilliant color from the iridescent throat of a hummingbird is inadequately explained by its nano-scale structure alone and questions remain. From a given observation point, which milli-scale elements of the feather are oriented to reflect strongly? Do some species produce broader "windows" for observation of iridescence than others? These and similar questions may be asked about any organisms that have evolved a particular surface appearance for signaling, camouflage, or other reasons. In order to study the directional patterns of light scattering from feathers, and their relationship to the bird's milli-scale morphology, we developed a protocol for measuring light scattered from biological materials using many high-resolution photographs taken with varying illumination and viewing directions. Since we measure scattered light as a function of direction, we can observe the characteristic features in the directional distribution of light scattered from that particular feather, and because barbs and barbules are resolved in our images, we can clearly attribute the directional features to these different milli-scale structures. Keeping the specimen intact preserves the gross-scale scattering behavior seen in nature. The method described here presents a generalized protocol for analyzing spatially- and directionally-varying light scattering from complex biological materials at multiple structural scales.

This thesis assessed the readability of CRT displays viewed under ambient lighting conditions and then evaluated the findings with respect to the ISO 9241-7 standard. More specifically, two phases of work were conducted in this thesis. In Phase 1, seven monitors were evaluated photometrically according to the ISO 9241-7 standard to determine whether they were Class I, II, or III in positive and negative polarity. Additionally, six filters were attached to each of the monitors and their ISO Class also was assessed. All monitor/filter combinations yielded either Class I or II in positive polarity and Class II, III or failed in negative polarity. In Phase 2, fourteen participants were asked to read Tinker passages from seven display/filter combinations (tested in Phase 1) under five lighting conditions and two screen polarities. The purpose of the Phase 2 was to determine if people perform differently for Class I, II, or III monitor/filter combinations. The dependent measures were the time to read the Tinker passage (reading time) and the ability to identify the out of context word in each passage (accuracy). An Analysis of Variance was used to determine the significant effects of reading time and accuracy. The ANOVA results indicate that specular glare interferes significantly more with reading time than does diffuse glare. Diffuse (200 lux) and Specular reading times also were correlated against two ISO metrics: screen image luminance ratio (Diffuse, 200 lux) and specular reflection luminance ratio. Reading times did not correlate with the screen image luminance ratio, but they did correlate with one of the ISO specular reflection luminance ratios. The results of this thesis indicate that the ISO standard should not equally weight the screen image and the specular reflection luminance ratios. Additionally, the results indicate that it is not necessary to have separate ISO Classes for positive and negative polarity. Furthermore, people did not read differently for Class I, II, or III monitor/filter combinations. Finally, the data of this investigation provide an initial human factors database for use in assessing the validity of ISO 9241-7. Master of Science