Physics-based rendering: Simulated Mueller matrix imaging

Abstract

Physics-based rendering (PBR) engines attempt to generate photorealistic images by mimicking light-matter interaction in a physically plausible way. PBR has become the standard rendering method in the fields of animation, gaming, and computer graphics research. More recently, PBR engines have included the ability to track the full polarization state of light. An area of interest for polarization-Aware PBR engines is validating the accuracy of polarized bi-direction reflection distribution functions (pBRDF). pBRDFs are polarized material models described by a geometry-, texture-, and albedo-dependent Mueller matrix. For renderings, methods to analyze the pBRDF are limited. This work presents a pBRDF analysis method that simulates a Mueller matrix imaging polarimeter using a polarization-Aware PBR engine. Simulated reconstructed Mueller matrix images are qualitatively compared to measurements from a Mueller matrix imaging polarimeter. © COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.