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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Improved Out-Of-Plane Brdf Measurement And Modeling, Todd V. Small Sep 2021

Improved Out-Of-Plane Brdf Measurement And Modeling, Todd V. Small

Theses and Dissertations

The bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) describes the directional (spatial) nature of light’s reflectance from a material surface. When incident light of a particular wavelength strikes a material surface from a particular direction, portions of that incident light will be reflected into various directions in various amounts, depending on the material’s surface characteristics. Historically, the vast majority of BRDF measurement and modeling research has focused on reflection within the plane-of incidence (in-plane) and dealt primarily with simplified isotropic BRDFs. Remote sensing applications, such as satellite light curve analysis, typically rely on closed-form microfacet models for efficiency. There are many factors, …


Data Driven Investigation Into The Off-Axis Brdf To Develop An Algorithm To Classify Anisotropicity, Anne W. Werkley Mar 2021

Data Driven Investigation Into The Off-Axis Brdf To Develop An Algorithm To Classify Anisotropicity, Anne W. Werkley

Theses and Dissertations

The Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) is used to describe reflectances of materials by calculating the ratio of the reflected radiance to the incident irradiance. While it was found that isotropic BRDF microfacet models maintained symmetry about ɸs = π, such symmetry was not maintained about the θs = θi axis, except for close to the specular peak. This led to development of a novel data-driven metric for how isotropic a BRDF measurement is. Research efforts centered around developing an algorithm that could determine material anisotropy without having to fit to models. The algorithm developed here successfully …


Comparison Of The Accuracy Of Rayleigh-Rice Polarization Factors To Improve Microfacet Brdf Models, Rachel L. Wolfgang Mar 2020

Comparison Of The Accuracy Of Rayleigh-Rice Polarization Factors To Improve Microfacet Brdf Models, Rachel L. Wolfgang

Theses and Dissertations

Microfacet BRDF models assume that a surface has many small microfacets making up the roughness of the surface. Despite their computational simplicity in applications in remote sensing and scene generation, microfacet models lack the physical accuracy of wave optics models. In a previous work, Butler proposed to replace the Fresnel reflectance term of microfacet models with the Rayleigh-Rice polarization factor, Q, to create a more accurate model. This work examines the novel model that combines microfacet and wave optics terms for its accuracy in the pp and ss polarized cases individually. The model is fitted to the polarized data in …


Digital Holography Efficiency Experiments For Tactical Applications, Douglas E. Thornton Sep 2019

Digital Holography Efficiency Experiments For Tactical Applications, Douglas E. Thornton

Theses and Dissertations

Digital holography (DH) uses coherent detection and offers direct access to the complex-optical field to sense and correct image aberrations in low signal-to-noise environments, which is critical for tactical applications. The performance of DH is compared to a similar, well studied deep-turbulence wavefront sensor, the self-referencing interferometer (SRI), with known efficiency losses. Wave optics simulations with deep-turbulence conditions and noise were conducted and the results show that DH outperforms the SRI by 10's of dB due to DH's strong reference. Additionally, efficiency experiments were conducted to investigate DH system losses. The experimental results show that the mixing efficiency (37%) is …


Improving Detection Of Dim Targets: Optimization Of A Moment-Based Detection Algorithm, Shannon R. Young Dec 2018

Improving Detection Of Dim Targets: Optimization Of A Moment-Based Detection Algorithm, Shannon R. Young

Theses and Dissertations

Wide area motion imagery (WAMI) sensor technology is advancing rapidly. Increases in frame rates and detector array sizes have led to a dramatic increase in the volume of data that can be acquired. Without a corresponding increase in analytical manpower, much of these data remain underutilized. This creates a need for fast, automated, and robust methods for detecting dim, moving signals of interest. Current approaches fall into two categories: detect-before-track (DBT) and track-before-detect (TBD) methods. The DBT methods use thresholding to reduce the quantity of data to be processed, making real time implementation practical but at the cost of the …


Passively Estimating Index Of Refraction For Specular Reflectors Using Polarimetric Hyperspectral Imaging, Jacob A. Martin Dec 2016

Passively Estimating Index Of Refraction For Specular Reflectors Using Polarimetric Hyperspectral Imaging, Jacob A. Martin

Theses and Dissertations

As off-nadir viewing platforms becoming increasingly prevalent in remote sensing, material classification and ID techniques robust to changing viewing geometries must be developed. Traditionally, either reflectivity or emissivity are used for classification, but these quantities vary with viewing angle. Instead, estimating index of refraction may be advantageous as it is invariant with respect to viewing geometry. This work focuses on estimating index of refraction from LWIR (875-1250 wavenumbers) polarimetric hyperspectral radiance measurements.


Image-Based Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function Of Human Skin In The Visible And Near Infrared, Jeffrey R. Bintz Mar 2016

Image-Based Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function Of Human Skin In The Visible And Near Infrared, Jeffrey R. Bintz

Theses and Dissertations

Human detection is an important first step in locating and tracking people in many missions including SAR and ISR operations. Recent detection systems utilize hyperspectral and multispectral technology to increase the acquired spectral content in imagery and subsequently better identify targets. This research demonstrates human detection through a multispectral skin detection system to exploit the unique optical properties of human skin. At wavelengths in the VIS and NIR regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, an individual can be identified by their unique skin parameters. Current detection methods base the skin pixel selection criteria on a diffuse skin reflectance model; however, it …


Comparison Of Microfacet Brdf Model To Modified Beckmann-Kirchhoff Brdf Model For Rough And Smooth Surfaces, Samuel D. Butler, Stephen E. Nauyoks, Michael A. Marciniak Nov 2015

Comparison Of Microfacet Brdf Model To Modified Beckmann-Kirchhoff Brdf Model For Rough And Smooth Surfaces, Samuel D. Butler, Stephen E. Nauyoks, Michael A. Marciniak

Faculty Publications

A popular class of BRDF models is the microfacet models, where geometric optics is assumed. In contrast, more complex physical optics models may more accurately predict the BRDF, but the calculation is more resource intensive. These seemingly disparate approaches are compared in detail for the rough and smooth surface approximations of the modified Beckmann-Kirchhoff BRDF model, assuming Gaussian surface statistics. An approximation relating standard Fresnel reflection with the semi-rough surface polarization term, Q, is presented for unpolarized light. For rough surfaces, the angular dependence of direction cosine space is shown to be identical to the angular dependence in the microfacet …


Experimental And Theoretical Basis For A Closed-Form Spectral Brdf Model, Samuel D. Butler Sep 2015

Experimental And Theoretical Basis For A Closed-Form Spectral Brdf Model, Samuel D. Butler

Theses and Dissertations

The microfacet class of BRDF models is frequently used to calculate optical scatter from realistic surfaces using geometric optics, but has the disadvantage of not being able to consider wavelength dependence. This dissertation works toward development of a closed-form approximation to the BRDF that is suitable for hyperspectral remote sensing by presenting measured BRDF data of 12 different materials at four different incident angles and up to seven different wavelengths between 3.39 and 10.6 micrometer. The data was intended to be fit to various microfacet BRDF models to determine an appropriate form of the wavelength scaling. However, when fitting the …