Binocular stereopsis is a powerful visual depth cue. To exploit it, the brain matches features from the two eyes' views and measures their interocular disparity. This works well for matte surfaces ...

Smooth surfaces, as polished, coated, or wet surfaces, produce specular reflections under unfavourable lighting conditions. Image processing algorithms, such as any correlation-based computation, may ...

Retinal image structure contains an entangled mixture of information about three-dimensional (3D) shape, surface reflectance and the illumination field. Although the veridical separation of these ...

Glints of light from specular reflection of the Sun are a technosignature of artificial satellites. If extraterrestrial intelligences have left artifacts in the solar system, these may include flat ...

A new method predicts leaf optical properties from traits, improving canopy light modeling and photosynthesis estimates in ...

A momentary gleam of starlight could reveal alien construction to the next generation of telescopes, a recent paper suggests. We’ve all experienced it: the glint of sunlight bouncing off a car ...

Manufacturers are adopting automated optical inspection (AOI) systems based on phase shift profilometry (PSP) for applications in advanced packaging processes. Many of these processes use front ...

Last July, a glint of sunlight from Saturn’s moon Titan sped through space and fell upon the sensors of the Cassini spacecraft, starting a process of discovery that is now strengthening the idea that ...