Calculate the mean absorption rate at a detector

Then illustrates how to set the scene luminance of a uniform, equal energy scene to achieve any specified absorption rate.

Conversely, when we know the number of electrons in a particular type of pixel, we can estimate the illuminance of an equal energy light at the sensor, or the luminance of an equal energy light in the scene, prior to the optics.

See also: signalCurrent, poissrnd, getMiddleMatrix

Copyright Imageval Consulting, LLC 2015

Contents

ieInit

A target photon absorption rate for the sensor

tRate = 2;

fprintf('Adjusting to a target rate of %.4f\n',tRate);

Adjusting to a target rate of 2.0000

Calculate the photon absorption rate for a 1 cd/m2 at 1 sec

s = sceneCreate('uniform ee');
lum = 1;
s = sceneAdjustLuminance(s,lum);  % 1 cd/m2

oi = oiCreate;
oi = oiCompute(oi,s);

sensor = sensorCreate('monochrome');
noiseFlag = 1;
sensor = sensorSet(sensor,'noise flag',noiseFlag);
sensor = sensorSet(sensor,'exp time',1);

Calculate the mean photon absorption rate from the oi and sensor

% This is a form of the code from signalCurrent.m
q = vcConstants('q');     %Charge/electron

% signalCurrent estimates volts, like this.  We want current to electrons
% (which for the human case is current to photons)
%
% Convert current (Amps) to volts
% Check the units:
%    S * (V / e) * (Coulombs / e)^-1   % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb
%     = S * (V / e) * (( A S ) / e) ^-1
%     = S * (V / e) * ( e / (A S)) = (V / A)
%    c2v = sensorGet(sensor,'integrationTime')*sensorGet(sensor,'pixel conversion gain') / q;
%
%   S * (Coulombs / e)^-1
%    = S * ( A S / e)^-1
%    = e / A
c2e = sensorGet(sensor,'integration time')/ q;

% Signal current returns Amps/pixel/sec
%   c2e * Amps/pixel/sec
%     = (e/A) * (A/pixel/sec)
%     = e / pixel / sec
pImage = c2e*signalCurrent(oi,sensor);

fprintf('Direct calculation of photon rate:  %.4f \n',mean(pImage(:)))

Direct calculation of photon rate:  3316.1433 

The ISET calculation produces the same mean rate

sensor = sensorCompute(sensor,oi);

% Get the electrons from the first pixel type
electrons = sensorGet(sensor,'electrons');

% In the middle of the image to avoid the edges
electrons = getMiddleMatrix(electrons,[40,40]);

% This is the Photon absorptions per exposure (which is 1 sec)
pRate = mean(electrons(:));

% ieAddObject(oi); ieAddObject(sensor);
% oiWindow; sensorImageWindow;

Calculate how to adjust the scene luminance

% Scale the scene luminance
newLum = lum * (tRate/pRate);
fprintf('Adjusting the scene luminance to %e cd/m^2\n',newLum);
s = sceneAdjustLuminance(s,newLum);  % 1 cd/m2

Adjusting the scene luminance to 6.022147e-04 cd/m^2

Compute the photon rate at the new scene luminance level

oi = oiCompute(oi,s);
fprintf('Through the optics the illuminance is %e lux\n',oiGet(oi,'mean illuminance'));

sensor = sensorCompute(sensor,oi);
electrons = sensorGet(sensor,'electrons',1);

% Photon absorptions per exposure
fprintf('Computed mean photon rate %e\n',mean(electrons(:)))

% Show the distribution
% vcNewGraphWin; histogram(electrons(:),50)

c2e = sensorGet(sensor,'integration time')/ q;

% Signal current returns Amps/pixel/sec
%   c2e * Amps/pixel/sec
%    = (e/A) * (A/pixel/sec)
%    = e / pixel / sec
pImage = c2e*signalCurrent(oi,sensor);

fprintf('Direct calculation of photon rate:  %.4f (target = %.4f)\n',mean(pImage(:)),tRate)

Through the optics the illuminance is 1.832233e-05 lux
Computed mean photon rate 2.002683e+00
Direct calculation of photon rate:  1.9970 (target = 2.0000)

Histogram of photon numbers and expected Poisson distribution

nSamp = round(max(2*sqrt(tRate)*50,1000));
val = poissrnd(tRate,nSamp);

xval =  min(electrons(:)):max(electrons(:));

vcNewGraphWin;
n = hist(val(:),xval); bar(xval,n/sum(n(:))); hold on;

[n,c] = hist(electrons(:),xval);
n = n/sum(n(:)); lst = (n > 0);
plot(c(lst),n(lst),'ro-','linewidth',2);

xlabel('Photon count'); ylabel('Number')
title(sprintf('Photon distribution (mean %.3f)',mean(pImage(:))));

Published with MATLAB® R2024a