Glare Reduction from Specularly Reflecting Flat and Spherical Surfaces via Light Field Illumination

Light field approaches have been shown to be useful in a range of computational imaging and display technologies. Taking the classical assumption that light paths are fully reversible, we use a ray tracing model to demonstrate its application in generating controllable illumination which can be used to reduce specular reflections. Specifically, we show that when illuminating a reflective subject through the imaging lens specular reflections can be eliminated for flat and convex spherical surfaces as well as for most concave spherical surfaces. Applications for this technology exist in many areas including medicine and industrial automation.