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Photometry for Traffic Engineers...

Workshop presented at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board in January 2000 by Frank Schieber Heimstra Human Factors Laboratories University of South Dakota

Many figures borrowed from: Ryer, A. Handbook. http://www.intl-light.com/handbook/ (An excellent and practical resource!!!)

TRB 2000 for Traffic Engineers 1 Basic Light Measurement

• Visible Electromagnetic Radiation (Light) • Radiometric to Photometric Conversion • (Lumens) • () • () • (cd/m2)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 2 Taxonomy of Photometric Units

Luminous Flux Total “effective” output of a lamp

Luminous Intensity Candela Light density through space • Vehicle • Traffic signal lamps/lenses Illuminance Lux Light density falling upon a surface • Roadway illumination • Highway sign illumination Luminance Candela/m2 of extended source/surface • Highway sign brightness/contrast •Proxy for “retroreflectivity”

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 3 Light Energy • Light is visible electromagnetic radiation • Magnitude measured in (1/746 H.P.) • (l): 380 to 730 nm (400-700 nominal) • Frequency: 789 down to 384 THz

l

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 4 CIE Spectral Luminosity Function Dark Light Adapted Adapted V’ • The human eye is l Vl 1.00 more sensitive to some

0.80 visible than others 0.60

0.40 • of light

0.20 must take these effects

Relative Luminous Relative Efficiency 0.00 into account 300 400 500 600 700 Wavelength (nm) • CIE Vl curve corrects for the differences across wavelengths

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 5 Commission Internationale

de l’Eclairage (CIE) Vl

(Color Plate)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 6 Radiometric to Photometric

Conversion via CIE Vl and V’l

Scotopic (V’l) 2000 1700 lm/W Dark Adapted 1500 Peak l = 507 nm Km = 1700 lm/W 1000 2.5 X Sensitivity 683 lm/W

500 Photopic (V ) Lumens per per Lumens l 0 Light Adapted 300 400 500 600 700 Wavelength (nm) Peak l = 555 nm Km = 683 lm/W

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 7 Luminous Flux (The Lumen)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 8 Luminous Flux

• Luminous Flux is the photometrically (Vl) corrected equivalent of the Watt

• 1 Lumen = 1/683 Watts at 555 nm (peak Vl) • Luminous Flux in lumens is calculated as:

730  V(l) dl 683  e,l 380

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 9 Luminous Flux Equation Revealed

Lumens per Watt Radiant Energy Wavelength Conversion Factor for in Watts Sampling Increment CIE Vl Curve 730 =  V(l) dl Lumens 683  e,l 380

Integrate over CIE Visible Spectral Luminosity Function

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 10 Step-by-Step Calculation of Luminous Flux • Measure radiant energy (Watts) from light source at each l across the (380 - 730 nm)

• Convert Watts to Lumens via the Vl curve and the photopic maximum luminous efficiency constant (683 lm/W at 555 nm) • Integrate Lumens across visible spectrum

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 11 Step 1. Measure Radiant Energy across l using a Spectroradiometer

Watts per nm Light

Current Precision Amplifier Aperture Diffraction Photodiode and Optics Grating Array MUX (See next slide for sample data) TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 12 Sample Data from Spectroradiometer

0.5

0.4

0.3 (Watts) measured every 10 nm 0.2 from 380-730 nm

Watts per nm Wattsper 0.1

0.0 300 400 500 600 700 Wavelength (nm)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 13 Step 2. Convert Watts to Lumens

0.5 1.0 0.4 600 0.8 0.3 X 0.6 400 0.2 0.4 =

200 Lumens per Watt Lumens per Watts per nm Wattsper 0.1 0.2

0.0 Efficiency Relative Luminous 0.0 0 300 400 500 600 700 300 400 500 600 700 Wavelength (nm) Wavelength (nm)

(See next slide for results)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 14 Results of Vl Conversion

700 600 500 400 300 200

Lumens per nm Lumens 100 0 300 400 500 600 700 800 Wavelength (nm)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 15 Step 3. Integrate Lumens from 380-730 nm

700 600 Integration across the 500 visible spectrm yields 400 a Luminous Flux 300 measurement of 200

Lumens per Lumens nm 2890 Lumens 100 0 300 400 500 600 700 800 Wavelength (nm)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 16 Luminous Flux Equation Revisited

Lumens per Watt Radiant Energy Wavelength Conversion Factor for in Watts Sampling Increment CIE Vl Curve 730 =  V(l) dl Lumens 683  e,l 380

Integrate over CIE Visible Spectrum Spectral Luminosity Function

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 17 Luminous Intensity (The Candela)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 18 Luminous Intensity (Power of Directional Beams)

Luminous Intensity refers to the amount of luminous flux emitted into a of space in a specified direction (since many sources are not isotropic)

The SI unit of Luminous Intensity is the candela

The candela is historically linked to “ power” (ie., 1/683 W/sr at 555 nm) 1 lumen 1 candela = unit solid angle

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 19 Solid Angles, Surfaces of Spheres and the Steradian Imaginary Sphere Surrounding Area a point source of light Steradian (w) = r2 1 m2 subtends 1 sr at a Area distance of 1 m…since A 1 m2 w = = = 1 r2 1 m2

Surface area of a sphere is subtended by 4p sr Sphere Area = 4pr2 2 r w = A = 4pr = 4p 2 2 ie., distance r r 4p = 12.56 TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 20 The Candela

An isotropic light source with a luminous intensity of 1 cd is emitting a total luminous flux of approximately 4p lumens (since an isotropic source emits light into a total volume of 4p sr)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 21 Broadband Measurement of Luminous Intensity Precision Aperture CIE V Silicon Photodetector 2 l (e.g., 1 cm ) Filter Display

Current r = 50 cm Amplifier • Photometer aperture subtends 0.0004 sr at 50 cm distance ( w = Area / r2 = 1 cm2 / (50 cm)2 = 0.0004 sr ) • Light energy in 0.0004 sr is filtered and converted to current • Current is converted to lumens (per calibration constant) • Lumens divided by 0.0004 sr = ( e.g., 0.058932 lm / 0.0004 sr = 147.330 lm/sr (candelas) ) TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 22 Illuminance (Lux)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 23 Illuminance

The photometrically corrected light energy falling upon a given unit of surface area (e.g. lumens/m2) 1 meter 1 m2 at distance of 1 m subtends 1 steradian 1 foot cd = 1 lumen per m2 = 1 lux

1 ft2 = 0.0929 m2 1 ft2 at a distance of 1 ft subtends 1 sr (w = 1 ft2/ 1 ft2 = 1 steradian) The foot-candle contains 1 cd source emits 1 lumen into 1 sr 10.76 more light 1 lumen per ft2 = 1 foot-candle (fc) per unit area than the lux TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 24 Inverse-Square Law

Since light from a “point source” expands outward, illuminance available to a surface decreases according to the inverse-square law

An illuminaire can be treated as a “point source” when the viewing distance is at least 5X greater than the diameter of the light source (5-to-1 rule)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 25 Inverse-Square Law Example E = I/d2 • cos(); E d 2 = E d 2 where: 1 1 2 2 E = illuminance (lux) d = distance (m) I = luminous intensity (candelas)

2 2 E2 = E1 d1 /d2 2 2 2 2 1 m 1 m = E1 * 1 /2

= E1/4 d1 = 1 meter Double the distance, d2 = 2 meters Quarter the energy

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 26 Cosine Law

Illuminance also decreases with the angle of incidence, as captured by the cosine law

E = cos() * E0 where:

E = Illuminace resulting from light incident at an angle  degrees from the normal

E0 = Illumination resulting from light incident perpendicular (normal) to the surface plane

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 27 Cosine Law Example

E = cos(0) * E0 E = 1.0 * E0  = 0-deg As the angle of incidence increases from 0-degrees E = cos(30) * E0 (from the normal) to 90-deg, E = 0.86 * E  = 30-deg  0 the light density falling upon a surface drops by a

E = cos(60) * E0 factor of cos() E = 0.50 * E  = 60-deg  0

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 28 Broadband Photometer (Illumination Meter)

Precision Silicon Aperture Photodetector

Display Light Lux

Cosine Current

Diffuser CIE Vl Amplifier Photometric Correction Filter

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 29 Cosine Diffuser Head

Cosine Diffuser

Precision diffusion “lens” can redirect off-axis light toward the detector while also effectively applying the cosine correction factor

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 30 Luminance (lux/sr x 1/m2; candela/m2)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 31 Luminance

Luminance is a measure of the:

• luminous flux density per beam solid angle

• areal density of luminous intensity emitted from an extended source

• luminous intensity of the projected image of an extended source per unit area of that extended source

• The SI unit of luminance is the candela per m2 (“nit”)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 32 Luminance as Projected Luminous Intensity Luminous intensity (cd = lm/sr)

dI L 2 = cd/m dA * cos()

 Projected Area (m2)

Luminous Surface Area (A)

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 33 Luminance is an Abstraction

Luminance is not a source quantity nor a detector quantity; instead, it is a purely geometric quantity that describes the beam of light (areal image) connecting the source and the detector.

An optical system (e.g., eye or photometer) is needed to convert luminance into an illuminance at the detector (e.g., retinal illuminance or “trolands”).

Luminance is useful insofar as it correlates fairly well with the psychophysical dimensions of “brightness” and “contrast”.

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 34 Broadband Luminance Meter

Condenser Eyepiece CIE Vl Lens Correction Filter

Silicon Focusing Photodetector Lens Mirror Precision Aperture

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 35 Conservation of Luminance Across Viewing Geometry

• ’s Law of Surface Diffusion • Angle of Observation • Observation Distance

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 36 Lambertian Surface Diffusion (Another Cosine Law)

Incident Lambertian Transmittance Beam cos(0)=100% cos(30)=87%

cos(60)=50%

Lambertian Reflectance Incident Beam TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 37 Observation Angle Surface area sampled through a given aperture size increases as a factor of cos() 0-deg Bird’s eye view 60-deg 0-deg

However, this increase in surface area is offset by the fact that the 0-deg emission of light from the area being 60-deg sampled decreases by the same factor of cos()

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 38 Observation Distance

Luminance in independent of viewing distance to an extended source since the sampled area (FOV) increases with distance is a manner that cancels-out concurrent inverse-square losses.

Caveat: The extended source must completely fill the aperture of the mesurement device!

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 39 Special Problems: LED Symbol Heads

How do you obtain a useful photometric field quantity to characterize LED-based symbol signs?

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 40 Light Emitting Diodes (LED’s)

What other problems do LED’s present regarding their photometric characterization?

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 41 References

• DeCusatis, C. (Editor). Handbook of Applied Photometry. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1998. [Am. Inst. Physics]

•Ryer, A. Light Measurement Handbook. http://www.intl-light.com/handbook/ http://apps.usd.edu/coglab/schieber/pdf/handbook.pdf

•Photometry for Traffic Engineers Web Page http://apps.usd.edu/coglab/schieber/trb2000/index.htm

TRB 2000 Photometry for Traffic Engineers 42