Definition
Fluorescent lighting is the illumination of a scene by the fluorescence of phosphor in a gas-discharge lamp.
Background
In fluorescent lighting, electrical energy is converted into radiant energy by a physical process in the fluorescent lamp. The lamp consists of a sealed glass tube containing mercury vapor, an inert gas (such as argon) at low pressure, and a phosphor coating on the inside surface. After ionizing the gas, electrical current flows through the gas between electrodes at the ends of the tube. The current excites the mercury atoms, which then emit ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet (UV) light is not visible to the human eye, but is used to cause fluorescence of the phosphor, which absorbs the UV radiation and produces light in the visible range of the color spectrum. Additional details on fluorescent lamp operation can be found in [3].
Fluorescent light has certain properties that distinguish it from other forms of illumination. These include a color spectrum with...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Du H, Tong X, Cao X, Lin S (2009) A prism-based system for multispectral video acquisition. In: Proceedings of the international conference on computer vision. IEEE, Kyoto, Japan
Geller T (2008) Overcoming the uncanny valley. IEEE Comput Graph Appl 28(4):11–17
Henkenius M (1991) How it works: fluorescent lamp. Pop Mech 10:59–60
King BA, Paulson LD (2007) Motion capture moves into new realms. IEEE Comput 40(9):13–16
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Lin, S. (2014). Fluorescent Lighting. In: Ikeuchi, K. (eds) Computer Vision. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-31439-6_515
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-31439-6_515
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-30771-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-31439-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceReference Module Computer Science and Engineering