Concepts_ Terminology_ and Notation for Optical Modulation

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					        Concepts, Terminology, and Notation for
                  Optical Modulation
   In the early 1960s, the National Bureau of Standards               Considerations of transmission measurements had
aided the photographic and printing industries by                  even more important consequences. The textbook
conducting research on precise measurement of optical              definition of “transmittance” is the ratio of the amount
transmission and reflection density, providing physical            of transmitted light to the amount of incident light. The
standards to calibrate instruments, and writing national           most important applications of transmission are motion-
and international documentary standards on optical                 picture projection, slide projection, projection printing
density measurement. Optical density is a logarithmic              (enlarging), and the viewing of x rays and other trans-
measure of the darkness of a photograph or printed                 parencies on viewing boxes. A projector forms an image
image. Although the science was hardly new, it suffered            on a screen because the film absorbs or scatters some
from loose concepts and imprecise terminology.                     light, so the illumination at each point is some fraction
The same problems were encountered in photometry,                  of what it would be without the film. It might appear
radiometry, colorimetry, and spectrometry. This publi-             that one would need no more than the concept
cation [1] represented a major step forward in removing            “transmittance” to quantify this process. However, some
the confusion and promoting the use of precise concepts            projectors were made to view microfilm images that
in optical measurements.                                           scattered light. The light source was moved to one side,
   Physics textbooks defined “reflectance” as the ratio            so the light beam passed through the film gate but was
of the amount of light reflected from a surface to the             not directed toward the projection lens. With no film in
amount of incident light. Workers who said they were               the gate, the screen was dark. When film was inserted,
measuring reflectance actually measured the ratio of the           some light was scattered in the direction of the projec-
amount of reflected light to the amount of light reflected         tion lens and the screen became brighter. In Con-
from a standard diffuse white surface. They generally              cepts, Terminology, and Notation McCamy defined
regarded the measurement of the light reflected from the           “transmittance factor” as the ratio of the screen lumi-
white surface as merely a convenient way of measuring              nance with the film in place to the screen luminance
the incident light. There was no generally accepted                without film. The concept called “transmittance factor”
terminology to distinguish these two kinds of measure-             had not been previously differentiated from “trans-
ments. The concepts thus were blurred.                             mittance.” In the projector just described, the transmit-
   The degree of confusion may be illustrated by an                tance factor would be much greater than one. By
example. Light incident on white paper is diffusely                definition, transmittance cannot be greater than one.
reflected in all directions, only a minute fraction being          “Transmittance” and “transmittance factor” are differ-
reflected to the pupil of the eye. The ratio of the amount         ent concepts—two different physical quantities, with
reflected in that direction to the amount incident is a            different numerical values.
very small number, perhaps under 0.001. On the other                  There was no generally accepted collective term for
hand, the ratio of the amount reflected in that direction          ratios such as those describing reflection, transmission,
to the amount reflected in the same direction from a               or some combination of them, so the general term
standard diffuse white surface may be as much as 0.9.              “modulation” was introduced, based on the idea that
These are two different concepts—two different                     objects modulate the flow of light. The combination of
physical quantities, with vastly different numerical               light source and optics directing light to a specimen was
values. Such considerations led to a thorough analysis of          called an “illuminator” or “irradiator” and the optical
the basic concepts and terminology in this field. The              system collecting and evaluating the light reflected or
term “reflectance” was retained for the concept defined            transmitted in a specified direction was called a
in textbooks. The measurement relative to a white                  “receiver.” Light flowing from an illuminator to a
standard was called “reflectance factor.” That term is             specimen was called “influx” and that evaluated by the
now used internationally in photography, printing, and             receiver was called “efflux.” A guiding principle was
color science.                                                     that the physical quantity measured was a function of the

ratios measured and of the geometrical and spectral               International Organization for Standardization (ISO), in
specifications of the illuminator and receiver. A well-           an international standard [3]. The color measurement
known mathematical notation signifying a functional               community recognized the need for a term and readily
relationship was extended and formalized to provide               adopted “reflectance factor,” but the rest of the
a compact notation describing the geometrical and                 terminology was only gradually assimilated and the
spectral conditions for such measurements.                        system of notation was eventually standardized by the
   Perhaps the most important contribution of this paper          Committee on Color and Appearance of the American
was the adoption of the fundamental “principle of                 Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) [4,5]. Further
simulation”: To measure optical modulation, the geo-              parts of the system are being adopted in the current
metrical and spectral conditions of measurement must              revision of the International Lighting Vocabulary of the
simulate the geometrical and spectral conditions for the          International Commission on Illumination (CIE) [6]. A
use of the modulation. Before this analysis, the standard         method of greatly simplifying the geometric notation by
method of measuring the optical density of a film was             reference to conical geometry, introduced in this paper,
to measure the amount of light entering the entrance              was called “McCamy’s conical method” and recom-
port of an integrating sphere and then measure the                mended by later authors at NBS/NIST [7]. The paper
amount entering the sphere with the film covering the             was reprinted in NBS Special Publication 300, Precise
entrance port. This method assured purists that all the           Measurement and Calibration, Volume 7, Radiometry
transmitted light would be measured. NBS provided                 and Photometry [8] and Volume 10, Image Optics [9].
precise calibrations by this method, relating the optical            Calvin S. McCamy was born in 1924, received a
modulation to the inverse-square law of illumination. In          B.Ch.E. in Chemical Engineering and an M.S. in
practical densitometers the bulky integrating sphere was          Physics at the University of Minnesota. He taught there
replaced with a piece of diffusing opal glass. At low
values of density, it was impossible to correlate the
standard sphere density with opal-glass density because
there were interreflections between the film and the
white opal glass. The principle of simulation demanded
an answer to the question: “What is the use of the
calibrated standards?” In this case they were used to
calibrate densitometers. The physical quantity being
calibrated so precisely was not the physical quantity
being measured in practical applications. Either the
calibration procedure had to be changed or the practical
instruments had to be upgraded. Again applying the
principle of simulation, it was realized that when a film
was used for photographic contact printing there were
interreflections between the film and the white printing
paper. When films, such as x rays, were viewed on a
viewing box, there were interreflections between the
film and the diffuse illuminator screen. The practical
opal-glass densitometers were measuring exactly the
right physical quantity, so the “ideal” standard sphere
method was abandoned and the opal-glass method was
standardized. The same approach led to the development
of the standard method of measuring projection density,
using geometry simulating practical projectors. Great
accuracy and precision are useless if the basic concept
of the quantity to be measured is wrong [1].
   During this analysis, McCamy was Chairman of
the Densitometry Subcommittee of the American
Standards Association, which later became the Ameri-
can National Standards Institute. The subcommittee was
a sounding board during the work, so the whole
system was readily adopted as a national standard [2].            Fig. 1. Calvin S. McCamy at about the time Concepts, Terminology,
That national standard was equally endorsed by the                and Notation for Optical Modulation was published.

and at Clemson University and then joined the Fire                 reference materials for the industry. He designed and
Research Section of NBS (1958-1964) and subsequently               provided other test targets to calibrate instruments used
served as Chief of the Photographic Research Section               to measure the image structure characteristics of optical
(1958-1964) and Chief of the Image Optics and Photo-               and photographic systems. He developed a laboratory
graphy Section (1964-1970).                                        camera to measure how much information a photo-
   In the Photographic Research Section and later the              graphic film or plate could record on a given area.
Image Optics and Photography Section, he designed a                Scientists involved in manufacturing electronic compo-
nomograph to compute the color filter required to take             nents came to the Bureau to study the camera, and the
well-balanced colored pictures with a given film and               general features of it came into widespread use in the
illumination [11]. It was made available on a single sheet         production of tiny electronic components. McCamy
from the U.S. Government Printing Office or NBS and                derived a formula to compute the information storage
was very popular with amateur and professional photo-              capacity of a photographic system, in bits per square
graphers. It was the subject of many feature articles in           millimeter, from the measured resolving power [15].
popular and professional photographic magazines and                All these activities supported the development and
became a common feature of color filter catalogs.                  utilization of the U.S. satellite reconnaissance system,
   When demonstrations by Edwin Land led to wide-                  which was highly classified during the cold war.
spread speculation that cheaper and better color televi-              When it was discovered that the vast stores of federal
sion could be possible by using two primary colors                 and state government records on microfilm were devel-
rather than three, McCamy demonstrated to the Federal              oping blemishes that might destroy vital archival infor-
Communications Commission that a two-color system                  mation, McCamy mustered the support of many govern-
was not acceptable. That lecture-demonstration, by                 ment agencies and many private interests to conduct a
means of three projectors, allowed people to witness               wide-ranging investigation. His laboratory discovered
many visual phenomena. It generated such widespread                the cause of the blemishes. The microfilms were stored
interest that he was invited to present it fifty times at          in cardboard boxes and the aging cardboard emitted
NBS, major universities, major industrial research                 minute amounts of hydrogen peroxide, which attacked
laboratories, and scientific society meetings in 1959-             the film. The task was difficult because the concentra-
1961 [12]. Among other phenomena, he demonstrated                  tion of peroxide was less than 10 –9 mol/L and the
that under certain conditions, people perceive colors in           molecules were so labile that they were dissipated on
black-and-white images. He was invited to repeat that              passing through two centimeters of air [16-19].
lecture-demonstration forty years later, in February                  As Vice President for Research of the Macbeth
2000 [13].                                                         Division of the Kollmorgen Corporation in 1970–1990,
   Photographic wedges are widely used in photo-                   after leaving NBS, McCamy continued research on
graphic science. The wedge may be straight, the density            optical design, precise transmission measurements,
varying linearly with length, or it may be circular, the           color measurement, optical filter design, simulation of
density varying linearly with rotational angle. Since              daylight for color inspection, geometric attributes of
density is the logarithm of the reciprocal of trans-               appearance, densitometry in photography and color
mittance, the transmittance varies logarithmically.                printing, color order systems, color standards, and
When the density is gradually changing and is measured             related mathematics. He substantially improved the
over a finite area, it is difficult to know where on the           classical absolute method of photometry based on the
wedge the actual density value is measured. Some finite            inverse-square law of illumination, and he designed the
area is required for measurement. NBS could measure                Macbeth ColorChecker Color Rendition Chart , which
uniform areas precisely, but wedges could not be                   is used internationally to evaluate color-imaging
calibrated because the required theoretical relation-              systems. At the request of Congress in 1978, he ana-
ships were unknown. McCamy derived the mathe-                      lyzed all known photographs and x rays related to the
matical relationship between the measured density and              assassination of President Kennedy and testified before
the location to which it may be assigned, for a rectangu-          the House Select Committee on Assassinations. His
lar aperture on a straight wedge, a circular aperture on           method of analyzing images of long firearms is used
a straight wedge, a sector aperture on a circular wedge,           routinely by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
and a circular aperture on a circular wedge [14]. The              He continued to be active in national and international
last case was commonly encountered and, for that case,             standardization of photography, color printing, and color
the mathematical derivation was remarkably complex.                science, chairing committees of the American National
   McCamy also designed the resolution target used                 Standards Institute, the American Society for Testing
internationally to test microfilm cameras, and his                 and Materials, the International Commission on
laboratory made as many as 25,000 per year as standard             Illumination (CIE), and the International Organization

for Standardization (ISO). He wrote the spectral specifi-                   [6] International Lighting Vocabulary (E) (F) (G) (R), CIE
cations for optical character recognition for the banking                       Document No. 17.4 (1987), International Commission on
                                                                                Illumination (CIE), Vienna, Austria.
industry and the Universal Product Code for the grocery                     [7] F. E. Nicodemus, J. C. Richmond, J. J. Hsia, I. W. Ginsberg, and
and other retail industries.                                                    T. Limperis, Geometrical Considerations and Nomenclature for
   He is on the Advisory Board of the Munsell Color                             Reflectance, NBS Monograph 160, National Bureau of
Science Laboratory at the Rochester Institute of Tech-                          Standards, Washington, DC (1977).
nology and was Adjunct Professor at Rensselaer Poly-                        [8] H. K. Hammond III and H. L. Mason (eds.), Precise Measure-
                                                                                ment and Calibration, Volume 7, Radiometry and Photometry,
technic Institute, President of the Kollmorgen Founda-                          NBS Special Publication 300, National Bureau of Standards,
tion, and Trustee of the Munsell Foundation. He was                             Washington, DC (1971).
elected fellow of the Optical Society of America, Soci-                     [9] Calvin S. McCamy (ed.), Precise Measurement and Calibration,
ety of Photographic Scientists and Engineers, Royal                             Volume 10, Image Optics, NBS Special Publication 300,
Photographic Society of Great Britain, Society of Mo-                           National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC (1973).
                                                                           [10] C. S. McCamy, A five-band recording spectroradiometer, J. Res.
tion Picture and Television Engineers, and the Washing-                         Natl. Bur. Stand. 56, 293-299 (1956).
ton Academy of Sciences and has been honored for his                       [11] C. S. McCamy, A nomograph for selecting light balancing filters
lectures. He received the 1997 Bruning Award of the                             for camera exposure of color films, Photogr. Sci. Eng. 3, 302-304
Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology and the                         (1959).
1999 Godlove Award of the Inter-Society Color Council.                     [12] C. S. McCamy, A demonstration of color perception with
                                                                                abridged color-projection systems, Photogr. Sci. Eng. 4, 155-159
                                                                                (1960); C. S. McCamy, Colors perceived with abridged color
                                                                                projection systems (Abstract), J. Opt. Soc. Am. 50, 510(A)
Prepared by Calvin S. McCamy.                                                   (1960).
                                                                           [13] C. S. McCamy, Abridged Color Revisited—or Sleeping Beauty
                                                                                II, invited presentation at the Inter-Society Color Council, 2nd
Bibliography                                                                    Panchromatic Conference on “Color in Its Surround,” Savannah,
                                                                                GA, February 20, 2000.
 [1] C. S. McCamy, Concepts, Terminology, and Notation for                 [14] C. S. McCamy, Theory of optical wedges as flux modulators,
     Optical Modulation, Photogr. Sci. Eng. 10, 314-325 (1966).                 J. Opt. Soc. Am. 66, 1350-1355 (1976).
 [2] Photography—Terms, Symbols, and Notations—Density                     [15] C. S. McCamy, On the information in a microphotograph, Appl.
     Measurement, ANSI PH2.16—1984 (R1990), American                            Opt. 4, 405-411 (1965).
     National Standards Institute, New York.                               [16] C. S. McCamy, Inspection of processed photographic record
 [3] Photography—Terms, Symbols, and Notations—Density                          films for aging blemishes, NBS Handbook 96, National Bureau
     measurements, ANSI/ISO 5/1—1984, International Organiza-                   of Standards, Washington, DC (1964).
     tion for Standardization (ISO), Geneva, Switzerland.                  [17] C. S. McCamy, S. R. Wiley, and J. A. Speckman, A survey of
 [4] Standard Terminology of Appearance, ASTM E 284-98a,                        blemishes on processed microfilm, J. Res. Natl. Bur. Stand. 73A,
     American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), West                    79-99 (1969).
     Conshohocken, PA.                                                     [18] C. S. McCamy and C.I. Pope, Current research on preservation
 [5] Standard Practice for Specifying the Geometry of Observations              of archival records on silver-gelatin type microfilm in roll form,
     and Measurements to Characterize the Appearance of Materi-                 J. Res. Natl. Bur. Stand. 69A, 385-395 (1965).
     als, ASTM E 1767 95, American Society for Testing and                 [19] C. S. McCamy and C. I. Pope, Redox blemishes—their cause and
     Materials (ASTM), West Conshohocken, PA.                                   prevention, J. Microgr. 3, 165-170 (1970).


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