Photonics Dictionary: M

Pairs of color stimuli that exhibit metamerism as described by colorimetry. Also known as metameters.

A hologram formed by reconstruction of multicolor wavefronts. The system used to produce the hologram is designed to combine the different colored wavefronts of the separate illuminating sources, and...

A collection of color samples arranged in charts according to equal visually spaced steps in Munsell hue, value and chroma.

Founded by professor Albert Munsell. In the field of colorimetry, the Munsell color system is a color space that identifies a given color based on three different color measurements. These...

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is an optical device used to measure the phase difference between two collimated beams of light. It is named after the physicists Ludwig Mach and Ludwig Zehnder, who...

Machine vision lighting refers to the use of specific lighting techniques and equipment in the field of machine vision, which is a technology that enables machines to capture and interpret visual...

Machine vision, also known as computer vision or computer sight, refers to the technology that enables machines, typically computers, to interpret and understand visual information from the world,...

The small central portion of the human retina that is responsible for providing the clearest, and most distinct aspects of human vision. Light from an object directly forms an image on the macula...

The reddish/purple color that results when equal amounts of blue and red are combined so that no one wavelength dominates.

A colorless, crystalline compound whose low refractive index (n = 1.38) makes it effective as a lens antireflection coating when deposited by thermal evaporation in a near vacuum. This process...

Technique in which the polarization rotation of light, and its relationship to the magnetic field strength can be analyzed and related to various experimental parameters when passed through a...

A thick meniscus lens arranged concentric with the center of curvature of a spherical mirror to produce an image free of spherical aberration.

A double-surfaced catadioptric spherical mirror whose spherical first surface consists of a negative meniscus (concave) lens and second rear surface is a spherical mirror. This combination utilizes...

An acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Predecessor to the laser, the maser or 'microwave laser' was the first device to produce coherent electromagnetic waves,...

With respect to television, that part of a color television circuit that combines the I, Q and Y signals, and changes them into single red, green and blue signals applied to the picture-tube grids.

An electrical or optical device used to convert color coordinates.

A diagram used to represent the trichromatic variables of the components in a three-color combination.

A lens that has one convex surface and the other concave.

In colorimetry, the phenomenon in which spectrally different radiations produce the same color sensation for a given observer. In chemistry, the chemical property of two elements or molecules sharing...

An optical experiment carried out conclusively in 1887 that demonstrated that the ether, a hypothetical medium postulated by physicists to explain how light could travel in a wave motion through...

Micro-LED (micro-light-emitting diode) refers to a technology that involves the use of very small light-emitting diodes to create displays and lighting systems. These LEDs are miniature versions of...

An approximated measure of the smallest change in color temperature detectable by the human eye, defined as the reciprocal of the color temperature times 106. Also called mired or reciprocal...

An eyepiece located at the near end of the microscope tube. It often is a simple Huygens eyepiece, but compensating and flat-field projection eyepieces are quite efficient. Negative eyepieces are...

The lens located at the object end of a microscope tube. A wide range of objectives is available, including simple achromats, the color-corrected apochromats and the flat-field objectives. Objectives...

Mie scattering, named after the German physicist Gustav Mie, refers to the scattering of electromagnetic radiation (such as light) by spherical particles. Unlike Rayleigh scattering, which is...

The smallest angle through which light is bent by an optical element or system. In a prism, the angle of deviation is a minimum if the incident and exiting rays form equal angles with the prism...

The smallest object that may be seen, measured in terms of the angle subtended by the object measured at the eye. Also referred to as minimum perceptible color difference (MPCD) which is a unit of...

Also called sine wave response and contrast transfer function. The modulation transfer function is the ratio of the modulation in the image to the modulation in the object as a function of frequency...

Composed of one color; having only one wavelength of radiation.

Light consisting of a single wavelength or a very narrow band of wavelengths.

A monochromator is an optical instrument used to isolate and select a narrow range of wavelengths from a broader spectrum of light. The term monochromator is derived from "monochromatic," meaning...

Made up of a single color.

A camera equipped with a lens and a long length of perforated film, the latter being moved intermittently between exposures by a pulldown claw or sprocket. A rotating shutter serves to cut off the...

A group of four cameras loaded with different combinations of filters and film (one is usually an infrared color film) to permit the recording of the same subject in four separate regions of the...

A fiber optic bundle split along its length with the ends of the fibers extending separately to illuminate different points with a single light source.

Multispectral imaging is a technique that involves capturing and analyzing images at multiple discrete spectral bands within the electromagnetic spectrum. Unlike hyperspectral imaging, which acquires...

The use of narrow bandpass filters and special photographic emulsions to discern features of a surface that would not be easily recognizable with regular black-and-white or color photographic methods.

Numerical scale of chroma devised by A.H. Munsell and exhibited in the Munsell Book of Color.

Numerical scale of hue devised by A.H. Munsell and exhibited in the Munsell Book of Color.

Alphanumerical description of color according to Munsell hue, value and chroma.

Numerical scale of lightness devised by A.H. Munsell and exhibited in the Munsell Book of Color.