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Ray Tracing in Non-Constant Media

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Rendering Techniques ’96 (EGSR 1996)

Part of the book series: Eurographics ((EUROGRAPH))

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Abstract

In this paper, we explore the theory of optical deformations due to continuous variations of the refractive index of the air, and present several efficient implementations. We introduce the basic equations from geometrical optics, outlining a general method of solution. Further, we model the fluctuations of the index of refraction both as a superposition of blobs and as a stochastic function. Using a well known perturbation technique from geometrical optics, we compute linear approximations to the deformed rays. We employ this approximation and the blob representation to efficiently ray trace non linear rays through multiple environments. In addition we present a stochastic model for the ray deviations derived from an empirical model of air turbulence. We use this stochastic model to precompute deformation maps.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Jos Stam & Eric Languénou

  2. Projet SYNTIM, INRIA, Rocquencourt, France

    Jos Stam

  3. IRIN, Université de Nantes, Nantes, France

    Eric Languénou

Authors
  1. Jos Stam
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  2. Eric Languénou
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics and Applied Mathematics, University of Girona, Spain

    Xavier Pueyo

  2. Department of Computer Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA

    Peter Schröder

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag/Wien

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Stam, J., Languénou, E. (1996). Ray Tracing in Non-Constant Media. In: Pueyo, X., Schröder, P. (eds) Rendering Techniques ’96. EGSR 1996. Eurographics. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-7484-5_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-7484-5_23

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-211-82883-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-7484-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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