Convergence in Broadcast and Communications Media

6Light

 

 

6.1 Introduction

Light is a form of radiation and physical laws have been constructed to explain its behaviour. The general science of radiation is called radiometry. However, physical laws cannot explain the sense we call vision or the impression of colour. For applications of imaging technology such as television and cinema, light is what can be seen by a human being and this is the subject of photometry. In that context, any discussion must include the characteristics of the eye in all the relevant domains. Once the operation of the human visual system (HVS) is understood, it will be clear that, in order to obtain realism, imaging quality has to meet adequate criteria in a number of domains. These include at least contrast, noise ...