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Computer Vision pp 679–680Cite as

Retroreflection

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Synonyms

Backscattering

Related Concepts

Asperity Scattering; Lambertian Reflectance; Surface Roughness

Definition

Retroreflection is a type of reflectance which is characterized by a peak in the backward or illumination direction. Thus, materials that backscatter scatter light primarily in the direction from which it is illuminated.

Background

The reflectance of natural, opaque, rough surfaces can be described by the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) [7]. BRDFs that are common and well known are those of Lambertian, perfectly diffusely scattering, and of specular surfaces. Such surfaces scatter light in all directions (diffuse scattering) or primarily in the mirror direction (specular reflection). However, natural surfaces can scatter light in many other ways. Retroreflection is just one such manner. Retroreflection can be caused by, for instance, hemispherical concavities in the surface [5, 8]. Even if the surface is locally Lambertian, such a “thoroughly pitted...

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References

  1. CUReT, Columbia–Utrecht reflectance and texture database. http://www.cs.columbia.edu/CAVE/curet

  2. Dana KJ, van Ginneken B (1977) Reflectance and texture of real-world surfaces. In: Proceedings of the IEEE computer science conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (CVPR)

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  3. Heiligenschein photographs, http://www.weatherscapes.com/album.php?cat=optics&subcat=heiligenschein

  4. Koenderink JJ, Pont SC (2008) Material properties for surface rendering. Int J Comput Vis Biomech 1(1):43–53

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  5. Koenderink JJ, van Doorn AJ, Dana KJ, Nayar S (1999) Bidirectional reflection distribution function of thoroughly pitted surfaces. Int J Comput Vis 31(2/3):129–144

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  6. Lambert JH (1760) Photometria Sive de Mensure de Gradibus Luminis, Colorum et Umbræ. Eberhard Klett, Augsburg

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  7. Nicodemus FE, Richmond JC, Hsia JJ (1977) Geometrical considerations and nomenclature for reflectance. National Bureau of Standards, U.S. Monograph, vol 160. U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington

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  8. Pont SC, Koenderink JJ (2002) Bidirectional reflectance distribution function of specular surfaces with hemispherical pits. J Opt Soc Am A 19(12):2456–2466

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    S. C. Pont

Authors
  1. S. C. Pont
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Katsushi Ikeuchi

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Pont, S.C. (2014). Retroreflection. In: Ikeuchi, K. (eds) Computer Vision. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-31439-6_575

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