Background: Automobile lighting is a major function on any automobile to illuminate the road to let drivers and commuters see the road ahead. It also serves a variety of other purposes. However, it is now becoming a luxury design feature, with each automobile manufacturer having their own unique lamps. Every car manufacturer now has its own characteristic lights that can be recognized from a considerable distance, and they strive for homogeneity. As a result, it’s critical to check and assess a lamp's homogeneity during the product development phase to identify any potential flaws. Objectives: This research presents a HDRImage encoding for visualizing and verifying luminance data in image format. For an intuitive and subjective evaluation also the colour is used. Secondly, using the mean filter technique to validate an internal Volvo Cars lit surface homogeneity requirement and automate the time-consuming process. Lastly, using the ISOcontour approach to propose and implement a simple yet effective verification method for distributed light homogeneity. Methods: The research methods used in this study are literature review and experiment. To discover further about HDRImage encoding using luminance data, as well as existing light measurement and evaluation approaches, a literature review is conducted. The appropriate approaches for this study are then combined and implemented to produce a verification method that uses the homogeneity requirement to automatically verify lit surfaces. This thesis also presented ISOcontour lines as a way for evaluating distributed light. Results: The findings of this thesis demonstrate that it is possible to develop a method for verifying and evaluating luminance data obtained from simulation software and photometers without relying on any licensed software for light evaluation. The methods are, for visualisation using HDRImage encoding, a method to evaluate light such as false colour, ISOcontour lines for distributed light verification, and an automatic homogeneity verification approach for lit surface to make the verification of illumination process efficient. Conclusions:  Experiment provided a means of visualizing luminance data of both virtual and physical prototypes, verifying distributed light, and automatically verifying it surface homogeneity, while literature review assisted in gathering information in certain fields to better comprehend light evaluation methods.

Tato diplomová práce se zabývá syntézou HDR obrazu (High Dynamic Range Imaging). HDRI technologie se stala v posledních letech velice populární. Běžný a nejvíce používaný způsob vytvoření HDR obrazu je spojení více snímků stejné scény pořízených pomocí různých expozičních časů. Tato technika funguje správně pouze v případě, že se jedná o statickou scénu. Pokud je však ve scéně nějaký pohyb ve chvíli, kdy se pořizují snímky dané scény, výsledný HDR obraz obsahuje artefakty zvané jako duchy. V této práci jsou prezentovány základní informace o HDRI se zaměřením na metody odstraňující artefakty z HDR obrazů. Práce shrnuje již existující metody a dvě z nich - tzv. bitmap movement detection a histogram based ghost detection - představuje jako vhodné pro použití v real-time skládání HDR obrazu a pro implementaci na FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) architektuře. Tyto metody jsou v práci implementovány v programovacím jazyce C++ jako prototypy. Navíc je zde navržena modifikace metody založené na výpočtu histogramu pro jednodušší a efektivnější implementaci na FPGA architektuře.

High speed video has been a significant tool for unraveling the quantitative and qualitative assessment of phenomena that is too fast to readily observe. It was first used in 1852 by William Henry Fox Talbot to settle a dispute with reference to the synchronous position of a horse's hooves while galloping. Since that time private industry, government, and enthusiasts have been measuring dynamic scenarios with high speed video. One challenge that faces the high speed video community is the dynamic range of the sensors. The dynamic range of the sensor is constrained to the bit depth of the analog to digital converter, the deep well capacity of the sensor site, and baseline noise. A typical high speed camera can span a 60 dB dynamic range, 1000:1, natively. More recently the dynamic range has been extended to about 80 dB utilizing different pixel acquisition methods. In this dissertation a method to extend the dynamic range will be presented and demonstrated to extend the dynamic range of a high speed camera system to over 170 dB, about 31,000,000:1. The proposed formation methodology is adaptable to any camera combination, and almost any needed dynamic range. The dramatic increase in the dynamic range is made possible through an adaptation of the current high dynamic range image formation methodologies. Due to the high cost of a high speed camera, a minimum number of cameras are desired to form a high dynamic range high speed video system. With a reduced number of cameras spanning a significant range, the errors on the formation process compound significantly relative to a normal high dynamic range image. The increase in uncertainty is created from the lack of relevant correlated information for final image formation, necessitating the development of a new formation methodology. In the proceeding text the problem statement and background information will be reviewed in depth. The development of a new weighting function, stochastic image formation process, tone map methodology, and optimized multi camera design will be presented. The proposed methodologies' effectiveness will be compared to current methods throughout the text and a final demonstration will be presented. / Ph. D.

Cette thèse se situe à l’interface de deux des sujets de recherche du LEPSi8S, la perception et la réalité virtuelle, appliqués aux transports routiers. L’objectif de la thèse est d’améliorer l’état de l’art concernant le rendu des images de synthèse pour les simulateurs de conduite. L’axe privilégié est le réalisme perceptif des images. L’approche retenue propose un mode de rendu High Dynamic Range, qui permet de générer une image en luminance. La technique proposée permet de réutiliser des environnements virtuels classiques, avec un minimum d’informations supplémentaires concernant les sources lumineuses. Les textures et matériaux existants sont utilisés pour un rendu aussi proche physiquement de la réalité que possible. Ensuite, l’image est traitée avec un opérateur de reproduction de tons, qui compresse la dynamique pour tenir compte des limites liées au dispositif d’affichage, tout en respectant autant que possible un réalisme perceptif du rendu. L’opérateur a été choisi de façon à ce qu’il soit adapté à la simulation de conduite, notamment pour les cas extrêmes (nuit, éblouissement, soleil rasant). Une simulation de l’éblouissement a également été implémentée. L’ensemble du rendu est temps réel, et a été intégré dans la boucle visuelle les simulateurs de conduite du LEPSiS. Enfin, des comparaisons réel-virtuel ont permis de montrer la qualité du rendu HDR obtenu. Des expérimentations avec sujets, sur des photographies (avec une référence réelle) et sur des vidéos, ont de plus montré les meilleures performances d’un opérateur doté d’un modèle visuel humain pour la simulation de conduite, notamment par sa capacité à s’adapter temporellement aux variations de luminance. / The LEPSiS is leading applied research on the transportation field. This PhD addresses perception and virtual reality, two research topics at the LEPSiS. The objective of my PhD was to improve the state of the art of the computer graphic image rendering for driving simulator applications. The main issue was the perceptual realism of the images, notably in high dynamic range conditions (night, glare). The proposed approach puts forward a High Dynamic Range mode, allowing us to render images in luminance.We use classic virtual environments, with small additional information about the light sources. The textures and materials are used for a rendering as close as possible to physical reality. Then, the image is processed by a tone mapping operator, which compresses the luminance dynamic, taking into account the limited range of the display device and the perceptual realism of the rendering. The chosen tone mapping is adapted to driving simulations, and especially to extreme situations (night, skimming sun). A glare simulation was also added. The entire rendering is real time, and is now included in the driving simulators of the LEPSiS. Lastly, real-virtual comparisons assessed the quality of the obtained HDR rendering. Moreover, two psycho-visual experiments with subjects, on photographs (with a real reference) and on video (without reference), showed the relevance of a tone mapping with a human visual model, including temporal adaptation to changing luminance, for driving simulations.

Recent years have seen an increasing focus on electric energy consumption as well as ecology in relation to human health. It is crucial to maintain the so called lighting comfort which is influenced by a wide range of lighting parameters, including illuminance, brightness, balance of illuminance, and glare. Thanks to all these parameters we can design lighting systems in such a way as to prevent energy waste and far too rapid deterioration of eyesight. This study therefore focuses on glare evaluation of indoor and outdoor lighting systems. In order to comprehend the issue thoroughly, a detailed description of human eyes and their functions is provided, followed by definitions of glare and types of glare. An overview of different calculations for indoor and outdoor glare is provided, considering the evaluation of daylight glare in terms of complex lighting systems. The study mentions several options involving unconventional methods for measuring glare (brightness). In the analytical part of the study, outdoor glare on Kolejní Street and indoor glare at the Prof. Brauner Hall at VUT measurements were obtained using brightness analyzer (an unconventional method). The thesis is concluded with a comparison of the conventionally and unconventionally obtained measurements, considering their respective advantages.

The wavelet transform has been used for several decades and it is still an object of research - especially its recent modifications which are using the so-called second generation wavelets. It has several advantages over other integral transformations. The most important of them are the ability to localize both in time and frequency and an ability to decorrelate some real non-stationary signals such as images. For this reasons, the wavelet transform became an often used tool in many image processing tasks, for example in image compression, edge detection or contrast enhancement. In this thesis, the wavelet transform is explained, including the theoretical foundation and implementation for use with two-dimensional discrete signals. Some of the applications of the wavelet transform are presented and described. The wavelet transform showed to be suitable tool for edge detection, noise reduction, contrast enhancement and HDR compression.

Image processing algorithms have developed rapidly in recent years. Imaging functions are becoming more common in electronic devices, demanding better image quality, and more robust image capture in challenging conditions. Increasingly more complicated algorithms are being developed in order to achieve better signal to noise characteristics, more accurate colours, and wider dynamic range, in order to approach the human visual system performance levels.

Cílem této práce je demonstrovat možnost renderování srsti přímo do existujících obrazů bez toho, aby bylo po uživateli požadováno překreslení všech pixelů nebo dodání kompletní 3D geometrie a osvětlení. Srst je přidána na povrch objektů pomocí extrakce jejich přibližného tvaru a světelných informací z obrazu a takto získaný objekt je poté přerenderován. Tento přístup je nový v tom, že vysokoúrovňové úpravy obrazu (jako např. přidání srsti), mohou úspěšně vést k vizuálně korektním výsledkům a to i přes omezení nepřesnou geometrií a světelnými podmínkami. Relativně velká množina technik použitých v této práci zahrnuje obrazy s velkým dynamickým rozsahem, metody extrakce 3D tvaru z obrazu, výsledky výzkumu vnímání tvaru a osvětlení a fotorealistické renderování. Hlavním cílem práce je potvrdit koncept popsaný výše. Hlavním implementačním jazykem bylo C++ s použitím knihoven wxWidgets, OpenGL a libTIFF. Renderování bylo realizováno v software 3Delight kompatibilním se standardem Renderman, za pomoci množiny shaderů implementovaných v nativním jazyce Rendermanu.