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Videology Industrial-Grade Cameras - Custom Embedded Cameras LB 2024
color Dictionary Terms

slab laser
Solid-state laser geometry in which the standard rod is replaced by a slab of laser material. Often called...
optical axis
The imaginary line passing through both the centers of curvatures of the optical surfaces of a lens or mirror; the optical...
laser marking
Laser marking is a process in which a laser beam is used to mark or engrave a surface by altering its properties or...
colorimetric photometer
A photometer that uses a set of color filters to measure the intensity of light in various regions of the spectrum.
additive color mixing
Process in which two or more lights are combined by superposition.
double-Gauss lens
A fast, wide-angle lens used in television and photographic cameras, with excellent overall correction, but subject to...
blackbody simulator
A source that attempts to create the characteristics of an ideal blackbody. It consists of a cavity, generally spherical,...
silicon carbide light-emitting diodes
Silicon carbide (SiC) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric current is...
colorant
A substance such as a dye or pigment that is used to alter the color of light.
Wollaston prism
A polarizing prism consisting of two calcite prisms cemented such that they deviate the two emerging beams (which are...
photoelectric colorimetry
The measurement and analysis of color using a photoelectric instrument having three filters with broad spectrum bands.
optical filter
An optical filter is a device that selectively transmits or blocks specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. Optical...
diffraction spectrum
In spectroscopy, the parallel bands that vary in lightness and darkness or color, and that are formed when light is...
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of optical lens that consists of a series of concentric grooves or steps carved into a flat, thin...
autocollimator
An autocollimator is an optical instrument used for measuring small angular deviations with high precision. It operates on...
aperture mask
Also known as a shadow mask, a perforated plate placed between the focusing and accelerating electrodes, and the tricolor...
color aging test
A test used to measure the degree of fading of different colored materials, especially those involving organic dyes, which...
absolute purity threshold
Least value of color value combinations which gives white light; minimum purity as determined to be white.
color television
A television system that is capable of producing an image whose colors approximate the colors of the original, by the use of...
Twyman-Green interferometer
A testing device that provides a contour map of the emergent wavefront for the observer in terms of the given wavelength of...
adhesive
An intermolecular substance that serves to hold materials together. Two types are used in the optical industry: one, which...
resolution target
A chart on paper or glass containing a series of sets of lines at progressively smaller spacing and used to ascertain the...
diffuse reflectance spectroscopy
Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) is a nondestructive analytical technique used to investigate the optical properties...
light diffusion
Light diffusion refers to the process by which light is scattered or spread out in various directions as it interacts with a...
astronomical telescope
An astronomical telescope is a type of optical instrument designed to gather and magnify light from distant celestial...
periscopic lens
Two simple meniscus lenses arranged symmetrically on either side of the aperture stop, providing reduced coma, lateral color...
Fourier transform spectrometer
An instrument using a Michelson interferometer, a beamsplitter, two plane mirrors and a detector to give Fourier analysis of...
contrast control
With respect to television, a potentiometer that allows variation of the intensity of the different elements of an image and...
multiband camera
A group of four cameras loaded with different combinations of filters and film (one is usually an infrared color film) to...
Barlow lens
A negative lens used to increase the effective focal length of a telescope objective.
video graphics array
A display standard no longer in use and originally defined for IBM PCs, with 640 3 480 pixels in 16 colors and a 4:3 aspect...
Fizeau interferometer
A type of interferometer noted for producing narrow multiple-beam interference fringes. As a result, when compared with the...
color correction
The reduction in longitudinal, lateral and secondary chromatic aberrations in a lens or lens system.
axial color
A lens aberration that causes axial light rays having different wavelengths to focus at various points along the axis.
optical testing instrument
An optical testing instrument is a device or system used to evaluate and measure the performance, quality, and...
interference color
Color resulting from the interference between two light beams.
stereolithography
A method of creating real three-dimensional models by using lasers driven by CAD software. In contrast to the normal...
panchromatic sensitivity
Color sensitivity extended to cover the entire visible spectrum out to the red.
compensating filter
A filter used in photography to change the spectral composition of light entering a camera, or to adjust color balance...
fovea
The central portion of the retina that has the greatest sensitivity to form and color.
Pechan prism
A prism made up of two air-spaced components. It has the ability to revert, and not invert, an image, and can be used in...
color vision
Aspect of vision permitting the observer to distinguish among stimuli by their hue, saturation, and brightness or lightness.
machine vision lighting
Machine vision lighting refers to the use of specific lighting techniques and equipment in the field of machine vision,...
Pockels cell
A Pockels cell, also known as an electro-optic modulator, is an optical device used to control the polarization of light by...
adiabatic laser colorimetry
Method for studying absorption coefficients of low-loss materials, in which a sample is allowed to come to thermal...
color-translating microscope
A type of compound microscope that uses three visible wavelengths to translate details produced by invisible radiation.
coloring media
Transparent media which, when placed in front of a light source, change their color as a result of the selective absorption...
coma
A lens aberration, resulting from different magnifications in the various lens zones, that occurs in that part of the image...
electric-discharge lamp
A lamp that uses the transmission of an electric current through a gas or vapor to produce illumination. Neon, mercury and...
dichroism
Dichroism refers to the property of certain materials to exhibit different colors or absorbance of light depending on the...
Raman spectroscopy
Raman spectroscopy is a technique used in analytical chemistry and physics to study vibrational, rotational, and other...
effective color
The color of an object when it is illuminated by a nonisophotic source.
oblique error
The image error that results from astigmatism, coma, oblique spherical aberration, lateral color and distortion.
hill cloud lens
A fish-eye lens designed to photograph cloud formations over the entire visible sky.
evaporagraph
A sensor generally used for infrared imaging. It consists of two chambers separated by a thin, blackened membrane. An...
Cooke triplet lens
The simplest lens in which all primary aberrations may be corrected. It consists of two positive crown elements on either...
quantum dot light-emitting diode
Quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED) is a display technology that utilizes quantum dots, which are semiconductor...
polygonal mirror
A polygonal mirror, also known as a multifaceted mirror or facet mirror, is a type of optical component used in various...
Fresnel rhomb
A type of quarter-wave retarder in the form of a glass rhomb; light entering the retarder undergoes two total internal...
monochromator
A monochromator is an optical instrument used to isolate and select a narrow range of wavelengths from a broader spectrum of...
beamsplitter
A beamsplitter is an optical device for dividing a beam into two or more separate beams. A simple beamsplitter may be a very...
wide-angle lens
A wide-angle lens is a type of camera lens that has a shorter focal length than a standard or normal lens, allowing it to...
double-layer screen
A CRT screen on which two phosphors differing in color and persistence are deposited.
double refraction
The separation of unpolarized light into two plane-polarized elements by a doubly refracting crystal. When a crystal, such...
phase contrast microscopy
Phase contrast microscopy is an optical microscopy technique that enhances the contrast of transparent and colorless...
uniform color space
A color space in which equal distances represent equal visually perceived color differences.
scanning electron microscope
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a powerful imaging instrument used in scientific research, materials...
colorizing
stereoplotting
The imaging of two photographs of a stereo pair, in complementary colors, for the preparation of contour maps.
chroma
1. Attribute of a visual sensation that permits a judgment to be made of the amount of pure chromatic color present. 2. The...
critical illumination
Illumination in which the light source is imaged at the object.
endoscope
An endoscope is a medical device used for visualizing and examining the interior of hollow organs, body cavities, or...
cosine law of illumination
Law relating the illuminance (or irradiance) of a surface to the cosine of the angle, q, between the normal to the surface...
Nomarski microscopy
Also referred to as differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy; Nomarski microscopy is a unique form of microscopy...
stereoscopic rangefinder
A rangefinder similar to a pair of binoculars with a long base, a dot or other wander mark provided in each eyepiece field,...
primary colors
A set of three colored lights which, when mixed, give the sensation of white light. The set used in color television, for...
Billet's split lens
An experimental lens used to produce interference fringes. A positive lens is cut into halves along its center, and the...
metamerism
In colorimetry, the phenomenon in which spectrally different radiations produce the same color sensation for a given...
jig transit
An optical instrument containing a gimballed sighting telescope, used to measure angular relationships in horizontal and...
smectic phase
A form of liquid crystal in which flow does not take place in the usual manner. When examined with polarized light, the...
Petzval lens
A high-speed, narrow-field lens consisting of two achromats spaced about the aperture stop. Its uses include portrait...
cathode-ray tube
A vacuum tube with an electron gun at one end and a fluorescent screen at the other. Electrons emitted from a heated...
barrel distortion
The negative distortion that causes a square grid pattern to be imaged as barrel-shaped.
color scanner
An instrument that uses a beam of light to scan a color transparency, and three differently filtered photosensors to record...
dilution
In chemistry, the addition of an inert substance to reduce the concentration of a species. In colorimetry, addition of white...
digital densitometry
Pictorial information processing in which the processed picture shows a family of equidensity lines or bands coded with...
optical spectrum
1.) Generally, the electromagnetic spectrum within the wavelength region extending from the vacuum ultraviolet at 40 nm to...
achromatism
Use of achromatic design; the correction of chromatic aberration; without color or hue (grey, black and white)
back focal length
The distance from the final optic within a system to the rear image point of the system. See focal length.
near-ultraviolet light source
A light source, such as the sun or an incandescent lamp, that freely penetrates ordinary glass bulbs and emits in the...
trichromacy
The basis of color vision in the human eye. Three types of cones have been identified, each having a unique spectral...
photoelectric exposure meter
A device consisting of a microammeter, a photovoltaic cell and a battery. It is used for the measurement of scene brightness...
motion picture camera
A camera equipped with a lens and a long length of perforated film, the latter being moved intermittently between exposures...
shadow mask tube
A type of color-generating cathode-ray tube that uses a shadow mask, a thin perforated electrode, located close to the...
achromatic point
Location on the CIE chromaticity diagram which produces the color white for a given light source at a specified temperature.
color graphics converter
A unit that converts images to the standard NTSC format for use with video recorders, projectors and discs.
color temperature
A colorimetric concept related to the apparent visual color of a source (not its temperature). For a blackbody, the color...
pseudocolor
In image processing, generating a color image from monochrome data by assigning a color to each of the gray levels.
colorimeter
A colorimeter is a device used to measure and quantify the color characteristics of an object or a light source. It provides...
scanning disc
In field-sequential color television, the rotating tricolor disc placed between the subject and the lens, or between the...
Goldberg wedge
A neutral-colored gelatin wedge, cast between glass plates, that is used as an intensity scale in certain types of...
color rendering index
A CIE index describing the changes in color of standard test objects when the illumination is changed from a standard to a...
receiver primaries
Also known as display primaries. Colors formed by a television receiver that are of constant chromaticity and variable...
telephoto lens
A compound lens so constructed that its overall length is equal to or less than its effective focal length.
Wadsworth mounting
A system used for gratings that consists of a concave mirror, a grating and a plate holder mounted normal to the grating to...
complementary colors
Colors that produce an achromatic color when additively mixed.
automatic optical inspection
A system for automatic industrial process control or measurement, consisting of an optical module for image acquisition, a...
after-image
That image remaining on the detector after the primary stimulus has been removed. In the visual system, the after-image...
critical angle
The least angle of incidence at which total internal reflection takes place. The angle of incidence in a denser medium, at...
multicolor hologram
A hologram formed by reconstruction of multicolor wavefronts. The system used to produce the hologram is designed to combine...
Sagnac interferometer
A type of interferometer in which two coils of optical fiber are arranged so that light from a single source travels...
Petzval surface
A paraboloidal surface on which the image is located when there is no astigmatism.
standing wave
The combination of two waves having the same frequency and amplitude and traveling in opposite directions. Standing waves...
spectrometer
A kind of spectrograph in which some form of detector, other than a photographic film, is used to measure the distribution...
maser
An acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Predecessor to the laser, the maser or...
matrix unit
An electrical or optical device used to convert color coordinates.
Foucault knife-edge test
The Foucault test is performed by moving a knife edge laterally into the image of a small point source. The eye, or a...
Mie scattering
Mie scattering, named after the German physicist Gustav Mie, refers to the scattering of electromagnetic radiation (such as...
darkening
The formation of a dark-colored film on a metal surface by chemical activity.
lens mount
The metal tube that maintains the optical components of a lens in proper relationship. Some lenses are mounted in metal...
interferometric modulator display
Interferometric modulator display (IMOD) is a type of display technology used in electronic devices, known for its energy...
Kellner eyepiece
An eyepiece consisting of a planoconvex field lens and a cemented doublet as the eye lens.
color monitoring instrument
An instrument providing a continuous measure of color.
colorimetric purity
Ratio, to the luminance of a test color, of the luminance of the spectrum color that matches the test color when mixed with...
Luneburg lens
A dielectric sphere with an index of refraction that varies with distance from the sphere center. A parallel beam of rays is...
slide projection lens
A lens designed for projection of color transparencies.
Lovibond tintometer
A subtractive colorimeter that expresses a liquid's or object's color as a combination of three colors. These colors are...
ultraviolet reflectance
Ultraviolet reflectance refers to the ability of a material or surface to reflect UV light. Ultraviolet light is...
Topogon lens
A symmetrical, very wide-angle lens. Well-corrected for spherical aberration and color, the Topogon can cover fields up to...
subtractive colors
Cyan, magenta and yellow. They are called subtractive because they each subtract one color by absorbtion and reflect the two...
chemical vapor deposition
Chemical vapor deposition is a process of applying dopants to a glass bait by flame reactions of gaseous compounds. See also...
cesium chloride
Colorless crystals used in photoelectric cells and for photosensitive material in cathodes.
phenotype
In biology, particularly genetics and evolutionary biology, the phenotype refers to the observable characteristics or traits...
resonator
A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance, which is a phenomenon that occurs when an external force or...
charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a type of electronic image sensor used in various imaging devices, including digital...
chromascope
An instrument designed to analyze the optical effects of color.
color circle
An early graphic scheme of colors in which saturated spectral colors are plotted around the circumference of a circle....
prism
A prism is a geometric optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. It is typically a solid, transparent...
keystone distortion
A type of geometrical distortion that brings about a trapezoidal display of a nominally rectangular picture. Usually...
piezo-optical transducer
A structure consisting of a thin film of liquid crystal sandwiched between light-polarizing filters that have received a...
opal glass
A material consisting of very small colorless particles imbedded in a clear glass matrix. It is available in two forms:...
structural color
Structural color refers to coloration in materials that is not caused by pigments or dyes but is instead a result of the...
ocean color
Refers to the characteristic hue of the ocean according to the presence and concentration of specific minerals or...
serpentine bend mode filter
A device used in measuring attenuation in optical fiber. The loss caused by the bends in a short reference length of fiber...
iris diaphragm
A mechanical device designed to smoothly vary the effective diameter of a lens, thereby controlling the amount of light...
diode laser
A diode laser is a type of laser that uses a semiconductor diode as the active medium to generate coherent light....
Fresnel mirrors
Two plane mirrors that are not wholly located in the same plane. When light from a point source or slit reflects from the...
Haidinger fringes
Also known as constant angle or constant deviation fringes. The interference fringes observed with dense flat plates near...
color blocking
 penumbra
A source of light will not cast a distinct shadow of an interfering, opaque object, but will cast a shadow having two parts:...
duplet lens system
An optical system having two sets of components separated by an air space, while successive lenses in each set are cemented...
achromatic
Color correcting; chromatic aberration corrected.
iris
The adjustable membrane located just in front of the crystalline lens within the eye. The iris gives the eye its color. See...
complementary wavelength
Also called complementary dominant wavelength. On a chromaticity diagram, the wavelength on the spectrum locus that lies on...
Maxwell triangle
A diagram used to represent the trichromatic variables of the components in a three-color combination.
optical switching
Optical switching refers to the process of controlling the routing or transmission of optical signals within a network using...
Rayleigh scattering
Rayleigh scattering is a phenomenon that occurs when light waves interact with particles or molecules that are much smaller...
biplanar image tube
Also called proximity focus image intensifier. A compact image intensifier that utilizes a microchannel plate...
disc colorimeter
A colorimeter using a spinning disc made of different colored sections for colorimetric analysis.
diffuse-cutting filter
A color filter that is designed to gradually increase or decrease its absorption with wavelength.
fullerenes
Molecules composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid or tube. Also called buckyballs....
radiometer
A device used to measure the intensity of radiant energy.
chrominance
The difference between any color and a reference color having equal luminance and a specified chromaticity.
eye
The organ of vision or light sensitivity.
neutral density coating
A coating applied to a neutral density glass that is designed to reduce the amount of light evenly across the transmitted...
tristimulus integration
Computation of tristimulus values by integrating or summing, over the visible wavelength region, the product of the relative...
integrating sphere
A hollow sphere coated internally with a white diffusing material and provided with openings for incident beam, specimen and...
elbow telescope
A refracting telescope that uses a prism to bend the line of sight 90°.
hyperplane eyepiece
An eyepiece similar to the Huygenian eyepiece, but having an eye lens that is a cemented doublet and that provides more...
solar furnace
An optical system that is designed to produce a high temperature in a specified area by the optical direction and...
CIE observer
Hypothetical observer having standard color vision as described by standard color-matching properties.
chip-on-board lights
Chip-on-board (COB) lights refer to a type of LED lighting technology where multiple LED chips are directly mounted onto a...
thematic mapper
An instrument used to record infrared images of large areas. The recorded data are used to produce maps in false color...
contact blocking
Also called color blocking. The formation of a block by making optical contact between a number of optical elements and a...
polarization-preserving fiber
Single-mode fiber that preserves the plane of polarization of the light launched into it as the beam propagates through its...
fan
A set of rays through a lens originating at a common point and contained in one plane.
pyroelectric infrared detector
Unlike the thermocouple or bolometer, the pyroelectric infrared detector is a current source with an output proportional to...
electrowetting display
An electrowetting display (EWD) is a type of electronic display technology that utilizes the principles of electrowetting to...
absolute colorimetric
Method of preserving the measured color value and color information as it is translated from differing devices. For example...
astronomical scintillation
Any irregular motion, variation in intensity or change in color that arises because of atmospheric turbulence during the...
color perception test equipment
Equipment for testing an observer's color vision. Some tests require the identification or ordering of colored samples. The...
panoramic camera
A camera designed to form a continuous record of an expansive section of the horizon. The typical panoramic camera is...
penta prism
A five-sided prism containing two reflecting surfaces at 45° to each other, and two refracting faces perpendicular to...
neutral mixture
An additive color mixture that appears to have no hue.
oscilloscope
A system in which a supplied signal causes the deflection of the electron beam in a cathode-ray tube, thus forming a visible...
infrared camera
An infrared camera, also known as a thermal imaging camera or IR camera, is a device that captures and visualizes the...
color-defective vision
Situation in which the observer requires fewer than three independent stimuli to make color matches. Dichromats require only...
quantum dots
A quantum dot is a nanoscale semiconductor structure, typically composed of materials like cadmium selenide or indium...
curvature of field
A lens aberration that causes a flat object surface to be imaged onto a curved surface rather than a plane.
supercontinuum
Supercontinuum refers to a broad spectrum of light that spans a wide range of wavelengths, typically from the visible to the...
photometry
Photometry is the branch of science that deals with the measurement of light, particularly in terms of its intensity and the...
Gauss lens
A telescope objective with excellent spherochromatic correction, consisting of a meniscus crown and a meniscus flint, both...
anomaloscope
An optical instrument that uses a yellow light of varying intensity with red and blue lights of fixed intensity to test for...
head-up display
An optical system that superimposes a synthetic display providing navigational or weapon-aiming information on a pilot's or...
color space
The entire range of colors a specific color model can produce, represented as a three-dimensional solid.
compensating eyepiece
A microscope eyepiece designed for use with apochromatic objectives. Since apochromatic objectives are undercorrected for...
electrochromic display
Type of solid-state display tube in which the readout surface is coated with a material that changes color when positively...
depth of focus
The range of image distances that corresponds to the range of object distances covered by the depth of field.
triad
In a color cathode-ray tube, a grouping of three color dots (red, blue and green) that represent one pixel in the final...
petrographic specimen preparation
The grinding and polishing of rock samples, to a thickness of less than 0.05 mm, for study with petrographic microscopes....
Munsell color system
Founded by professor Albert Munsell. In the field of colorimetry, the Munsell color system is a color space that identifies...
Newtonian telescope
A telescope with a concave paraboloidal objective mirror and a small plane (diagonal) mirror that reflects rays from the...
anaglyph
An image that can be studied three-dimensionally through a pair of complementary color filters composed of two superimposed...
macula lutea
The small central portion of the human retina that is responsible for providing the clearest, and most distinct aspects of...
clear eye distance
In a visual optical system, the axial distance from the last mechanical surface of the eyepiece to the exit pupil.
CMOS image sensor
A CMOS image sensor, short for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensor, is a type of semiconductor device used...
Snell's law of refraction
The incident ray, the normal to the refracting surface at the point of incidence of the ray at the surface, and the...
matrix
With respect to television, that part of a color television circuit that combines the I, Q and Y signals, and changes them...
Savart polariscope
1. A polariscope consisting of a Savart plate and a tourmaline plate analyzer, and used to produce parallel color fringes by...
antireflection coating
An antireflection coating (AR coating) is a thin film or coating applied to optical surfaces, such as lenses or windows, to...
spectrum locus
On a chromaticity diagram, the line on which fall the chromaticities of the pure spectrum colors.
scotopic vision
Vision by means of retinal rods; vision of the dark-adapted eye. In scotopic vision, the level of luminance is so low that...
circumzenithal arc
The halo phenomenon of a brightly colored arc having the colors of the rainbow and lying parallel to the horizon.
halftones
The gray-colored tones halfway between shadows and highlights in a reproduced image.
color comparator
1. A device used in chemistry to compare the colors of solutions held in flat-bottomed tubes and viewed along the length of...
bimorph
A type of piezoelectric translator that uses two thin strips of piezoelectric material, one expanding while the other...
effect filter
A color filter, generally used in photography, to emphasize certain color tones and to modify others in a picture for a more...
optical tooling target
Sets of paired lines carefully designed to give the most accurate pointing possible for various lengths of sight.
photoelectric colorimeter
A system having a photoelectric detector for the measurement of three quantities related by linear combination to...
temperature-sensitive coating
A coating having pigments that change color when exposed to heat. This effect has been widely used to monitor hot spots in...
laser output
The laser output refers to the generated and emitted light produced by a laser system. This output is characterized by...
multileg lightguide
A fiber optic bundle split along its length with the ends of the fibers extending separately to illuminate different points...
phase-contrast microscope
A microscope that has an annular stop in the lower focal plane of the condenser, and a quarter-wave retarding and absorbing...
eye test apparatus
Instruments used by ophthalmologists and optometrists to study the eye. There are, for instance, the ophthalmoscope to...
color temperature meter
A device containing two photocells behind deep red and blue filters to measure color temperatures. The amplifier gain is...
chromatic
Having the property of color.
Schmidt camera
A camera that consists of a concave spherical mirror with an aspheric plate situated at the center of curvature of the...
Lissajous pattern
The pattern, formed by a character generation cathode-ray tube system, in which the characters are made up of wave shapes...
point cloud
A point cloud is a set of data points in a three-dimensional coordinate system, where each point represents a specific...
vidicon
A small television tube originally developed for closed-circuit television. It is about 1 inch in diameter and 5 inches...
differential interference contrast microscopy
Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, also known as Nomarski interference contrast microscopy, is an optical...
scanner
1. A device used to trace out an object and build up an image. One of the most common of these types is video scanning. The...
velocity modulation laser spectroscopy
A method of measuring negatively charged phase ions using a color-center or lead-salt diode laser.
reagent
A reagent is a substance or compound that is used in a chemical reaction to bring about a specific transformation or to...
laser
A laser, which stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," is a device that produces coherent and...
data bus
A system incorporated into fiber optic data communications characterized by several spatially distributed terminals that are...
triclinic
With respect to a crystal, having three unequal axes intersecting at angles, only two of which can be equal and only one of...
multispectral photography
The use of narrow bandpass filters and special photographic emulsions to discern features of a surface that would not be...
light-emitting diode
An LED, or light emitting diode, is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it. LEDs...
equiluminous colors
Colors differing only in chromaticity but not in luminance.
microscope objective
The lens located at the object end of a microscope tube. A wide range of objectives is available, including simple...
apochromat
An apochromat, often referred to as an apochromatic lens or apochromatic objective, is a type of optical system designed to...
diffraction grating
A diffraction grating is an optical component consisting of a surface with a periodic structure of equally spaced, parallel...
achromat
An achromat, in the context of optics, refers to a type of lens or lens system designed to reduce chromatic aberration....
color conversion filter
A filter that serves to alter the color temperature and the mired value of the radiation emitted by a source.
electrophoretic display
An electrophoretic display, often referred to as an electronic paper display or e-paper display, is a type of electronic...
field stop
An aperture located at an image plane of an optical system that determines the size and shape of the image.
Huygenian eyepiece
An ocular having two planoconvex lenses that are formed from similar glass and that are separated by a space equal to half...
isochromatic lines
1. Lines of the same color. 2. A term used in photoelastic stress analysis to refer to the interference fringes produced in...
surface-emitting laser diode
A semiconductor laser diode that emits light perpendicular to the active region. The output radiation is taken through the...
optical coatings
Optical coatings are thin layers of materials applied to optical components, such as lenses, mirrors, filters, and prisms,...
CCD camera
A CCD camera, or charge-coupled device camera, is a type of digital camera that utilizes a CCD image sensor to capture and...
dominant wavelength
A single wavelength of light that matches the color of a given sample when combined in suitable proportions with white light...
photovoltaic cell
A photovoltaic cell, commonly known as a solar cell, is a semiconductor device that directly converts light energy into...
Ostwald system
The system of color classification and description produced by Wilhelm Ostwald.
xenon
A rare gas used in small high-pressure arc lamps to produce a high-intensity source of light closely resembling the color...
Callier coefficient
The coefficient termed by Callier as the ratio between the density of photographic negatives measured by parallel light and...
color filter
liquid crystal on silicon
Liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) is a display technology that combines liquid crystal materials with silicon-based...
luma
The luminance portion of a composite video signal, i.e., the portion of the signal that corresponds to the brightness of the...
field emission display
An X-Y electrically addressable series of arrays with individual electron emitters bombarding a phosphor-coated transparent...
thyratron
An arc discharge tube having a grid that is used to start the discharge through an atmosphere of inert gas or vapor at low...
anomalous trichromatism
Color vision whereby abnormal proportions of three colors are needed for color matching.
ring-laser gyroscope
A ring laser gyroscope (RLG) is a type of gyroscope that uses laser light to detect and measure changes in orientation. It...
Munsell chroma
Numerical scale of chroma devised by A.H. Munsell and exhibited in the Munsell Book of Color.
multispectral imaging
Multispectral imaging is a technique that involves capturing and analyzing images at multiple discrete spectral bands within...
purity, colorimetric
 high-speed movie camera
A camera designed to record at rates exceeding 50 fps. For frame rates up to about 500 fps, an ordinary pull-down mechanism...
Dogmar/Aviar lens
A general-purpose lens, also known as the Celor lens, used widely in photography and commercial processing; it has the form...
intrinsic detector
A photodetector composed of a photoconductive material that, when exposed to radiation, conducts without the aid of added...
correlated color temperature
Temperature of the blackbody having chromaticity nearest to that of the test source on a specified chromaticity diagram.
offset prism
A prism or prism assembly that serves to displace the instrument's optical axis.
color photographic film
Film that produces color negatives or transparencies by the use of three emulsions, one coated over the other, that are each...
optical multimeter
An instrument that measures several optical parameters, such as optical power and wavelength, with a single measurement...
colorimetry
The methods used to measure color and to define the results of the measurements.
color sensitometry
The detection and analysis of the relative response of a material to light over the range of wavelengths.
neodymium glass
Glass containing small quantities of neodymium oxide that is used as a filter plate in color television or as a lasing...
chromaticity
The qualities of color associated with hue and saturation, but not brightness or lightness.
quantum confinement
Quantum confinement refers to the phenomenon in quantum mechanics where the motion of charge carriers, such as electrons or...
technicolor
The color process that is used to form positive color cine films by dye transfer or imbibition, based on the use of separate...
shading
1. The sorting of lenses by their color. 2. In an optical system, an irradiance or brightness gradient in the image that is...
thermograph
The instrument used to collect thermal radiation information on an object by scanning. It consists basically of a detector,...
glass
A noncrystalline, inorganic mixture of various metallic oxides fused by heating with glassifiers such as silica, or boric or...
Maksutov corrector
A thick meniscus lens arranged concentric with the center of curvature of a spherical mirror to produce an image free of...
monochromatic light
Light consisting of a single wavelength or a very narrow band of wavelengths.
photochromic
Photochromic refers to a property exhibited by certain materials, typically organic compounds or dyes, which undergo...
color blindness
 color center
A color center, in the context of materials science and condensed matter physics, refers to a specific type of...
spherical aberration
Spherical aberration is an optical aberration that occurs when light rays passing through a lens or curved optical surface...
Bragg grating
A filter that separates light into many colors via Bragg's law. Generally refers to a fiber Bragg grating used in optical...
paraboloidal mirror
A concave mirror that has the form of a paraboloid of revolution. The paraboloidal mirror may have only a portion of a...
spectral flow cytometry
Spectral flow cytometry is an advanced flow cytometry technique that expands the capabilities of traditional flow cytometry...
selective reflection
The reflection in different amounts as a function of wavelength, as a result of absorption and scattering, leading to color...
lenticular color photography
A type of additive color photography using a lenticular structure impressed on a film base and a camera lens with a filter...
binocular microscope
A microscope designed with two eyepieces (oculars), permitting the use of both eyes when viewing through the instrument.
flying spot microscope
A microscope that uses a flying spot scanner, directed through the eyepiece, as a light source to determine the features of...
grating spectroscope
A spectroscope having a diffraction grating for the resolution of light of various wavelengths.
separation filters
Three filters used in making a color print of a color negative, red, green and blue-violet, respectively. Each filter...
rhomboid prism
A reflecting prism that is rhomboidal in shape. It has two parallel transmitting faces, and two parallel reflecting faces;...
primary chromatic aberration
Also referred to as primary color, this is the classic chromatic aberration of a single element caused by the variation of...
triplet
A lens assembly made up of three lens elements that may or may not be cemented.
direct-vision pocket spectroscope
A small handheld instrument consisting of a slit and collimator that feeds light into a small direct-vision dispersing...
raster
The pattern of lines traced by rectilinear scanning in display systems.
confocal resonator
A confocal resonator, also known as a confocal cavity or confocal laser resonator, is a type of optical resonator...
spectroradiometer
A spectroradiometer is a device used to measure the intensity of light at different wavelengths across the electromagnetic...
coupler
1. In color development, the chemical that combines with certain by-products of the development procedure to form a dye. 2....
optical pyrometer
An instrument for determining the temperature of a hot object by examining the color spectrum of the visible light it gives...
Nicol prism
A prism invented by William Nicol in 1828 that is made of calcite, the end faces of which are ground to an angle of 68°...
gallium arsenide phosphide
Gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) is a semiconductor alloy composed of gallium (Ga), arsenic (As), and phosphorus (P). It...
blue diode laser
A blue diode laser is a type of semiconductor laser that emits light in the blue wavelength range of the electromagnetic...
three-level laser
A laser having a material, such as ruby, that has an energy state structure of three levels: the ground state (1) wherein...
electroluminescent display
The utilization of the light produced when electrical energy is directly converted into light within devices used for visual...
chromatic adaptation
Change of sensitivity of the eye leading to changed color perception.
spectral integral density
With respect to color photography, the measurement, at a given wavelength, of the way the color film modulates the radiant...
ion laser
A laser in which the transition involved in stimulated emission of radiation takes place between two levels of an ionized...
microscope eyepiece
An eyepiece located at the near end of the microscope tube. It often is a simple Huygens eyepiece, but compensating and...
fluorescence photography
The photographic recording of a subject that exhibits luminescence only for an extremely short time (10-8 s) after the...
modulation transfer function
Also called sine wave response and contrast transfer function. The modulation transfer function is the ratio of the...
reticle
A reticle, also known as a reticule or graticule, is a pattern or set of markings placed in the focal plane of an optical...
nematic phase
A form of liquid crystal with an appearance of moving, threadlike structures, particularly visible when observed in thick...
stereoscope
A small instrument containing a picture support and a pair of magnifying lenses so arranged that the left eye sees only the...
printer
A photographic enlarger with a fixed negative plane and a fixed paper plane, often using a roll of paper that is advanced...
metameric colors
Pairs of color stimuli that exhibit metamerism as described by colorimetry. Also known as metameters.
Cassegrain lens system
A two-mirror lens design used in astronomical telescopes, the primary being a parabola, the secondary a smaller hyperbola....
broadband dielectric mirrors
Broadband dielectric mirrors, also known as broadband mirrors, are optical coatings designed to efficiently reflect or...
diffraction
As a wavefront of light passes by an opaque edge or through an opening, secondary weaker wavefronts are generated,...
landolt ring
A broken circle used as the test object in distinguishing visual acuity. The width of the gap in the circle is equal to the...
collimator
An optical instrument consisting of a well- corrected objective lens or mirror with a light source and or object/image (i.e....
infrared mapping
The process of mapping the infrared emittance of an area through the use of an infrared detector and related scanning...
prism power
The power, expressed in prism diopters, that is the linear displacement, in centimeters, produced by the prism one meter...
halation
1. In a cathode-ray tube, the glow surrounding a bright spot that appears on the fluorescent screen as the result of the...
chromaticity coordinates
Proportions of standard primaries (tristimulus values) required for a color match; ratios of each tristimulus value of a...
digital camera
A digital camera is a device that captures and records still images or video in digital format. Unlike traditional film...
minimum perceptible
The smallest object that may be seen, measured in terms of the angle subtended by the object measured at the eye. Also...
light dispersion
The process whereby white light is separated into its component wavelengths. Light beams of different wavelengths are...
zoom lens
An optical system of variable focal length, the focal plane remaining in a fixed position. This result is achieved by moving...
cold shield
That part of an infrared detector-Dewar assembly that limits the solid angle viewed by the sensor; it is maintained at a...
Gregorian telescope
A telescope with an ellipsoidal secondary concave mirror that reflects rays from a parabolic primary mirror through an...
angle of incidence
The angle formed between a ray of light striking a surface and the normal to that surface at the point of incidence.
telecentric lens
There are three types of telecentric lenses: -Image-space telecentric lenses are those in which the aperture stop is...
x-ray diffraction
The bending of x-rays by the regular layers of molecules in a crystal acting like a very small diffraction grating. The...
detector-Dewar assembly
A detector-Dewar assembly typically refers to a combination of a detector and a Dewar flask used in scientific instruments,...
camera
A light-tight box that receives light from an object or scene and focuses it to form an image on a light-sensitive material...
high dynamic range
High dynamic range (HDR) refers to a technology that allows for a broader and more dynamic range of luminosity in visual...
connector
Hardware installed on fiber cable ends to provide cable attachment to a transmitter, receiver or other cable. Usually a...
sonde
A ruggedized scintillation counter used in oil well logging. The cylindrical housing contains a gamma ray source, a...
thermography
Thermography is a technique that involves the use of an infrared imaging device, called a thermal camera or infrared camera,...
inverse square law
The law stating that the illuminance (or irradiance) from a point source varies as the inverse square of the distance...
fluorophore
A fluorophore is a molecule or a portion of a molecule that has the ability to emit light upon excitation by an external...
fluorescent protein
Fluorescent proteins are proteins that exhibit the property of fluorescence, which is the ability to absorb light at a...
relay condenser
A form of lens assembly used in a projection system to maximize efficiency and assure uniform illumination of the object...
flying spot scanner
A device used to scan, with a small, intensely bright spot, portions of a picture surface and to transform the original...
radiation pyrometer
Also known as radiation thermometer. A pyrometer in which the radiant intensity from the source to be measured is used to...
loose-tube buffering
In fiber optic cable, containment of the fiber or fibers within an outer protective tube in which they can move to some...
isochromatic
Having the same chromaticity or color.
steradian
The unit solid angle subtended at the center of a sphere by an area on its surface equivalent to the square of the radius;...
secondary color
An aberration that remains after primary color is corrected. Primary color causes the back focus of a lens to vary with...
blackbody locus
With respect to a chromaticity diagram, this is the locus of points that represent the chromaticities of blackbodies...
reflection
Return of radiation by a surface, without change in wavelength. The reflection may be specular, from a smooth surface;...
apochromatic system
An optical system that is corrected chromatically for three colors simultaneously.
Kerr cell
A cell filled with a transparent material that, when placed in a strong electrical field, exhibits double refraction. Since...
degrees of freedom
The number of unique ways in which a part can move in an alignment system. In static alignment, there are six: one in the...
electron microscope
A device utilizing an electron beam for the observation and recording of submicroscopic samples with the aid of photographic...
dye transfer method
The subtractive imbibing process of transferring color prints on paper whereby the dyes from three separately prepared...
x-ray image spectrography
Irradiation of a cylindrical crystal with an x-ray beam resulting in Bragg diffraction that produces a slightly enlarged...
bleach (or bleacher)
A chemical used in the developing of positive photographs that incites oxidation and thereby dissolves the negative silver...
Cornu double prism
A compound prism formed by cementing together two 30° prisms, one of right-handed and one of left-handed quartz. It has...
chromatic aberration
Chromatic aberration is an optical phenomenon that occurs when different wavelengths (colors) of light are refracted by a...
Galilean telescope
A refracting telescope that yields an erect image by the use of a positive lens for its objective and a negative lens for...
Munsell notation
Alphanumerical description of color according to Munsell hue, value and chroma.
Munsell value
Numerical scale of lightness devised by A.H. Munsell and exhibited in the Munsell Book of Color.
soliton laser
A color center laser whose output is coupled to an external control laser cavity and then fed back to the main laser cavity...
viewing filter
A filter, pale purple in color, used in black and white photography to display the brightness values of a subject being...
long-pass filter
A long-pass filter is an optical filter that allows longer wavelengths of light to pass through while blocking or...
CIE system
Methodology for specifying color based on the CIE sources, observers, and coordinate system.
optical parametric oscillator
A laser-pumped crystal with nonlinear optical properties inside of an optical resonator in which the output generates...
enhanced graphic adaptor
An image processing device that displays pseudocolor images by assigning colors to the gray scales according to look-up...
optical profiler
Also known as a white-light interferometer. Measures surface texture and shape from nanometer-scale roughness to...
STED microscopy
STED microscopy, or stimulated emission depletion microscopy, is a superresolution imaging technique in fluorescence...
tristimulus colorimeter
camera tube
The electron beam tube of a television camera that converts an optical image into a pattern of electrostatic charges and...
spectroheliograph
An instrument in which an image of the sun is scanned by the entrance slit of a monochromator, the exit slit simultaneously...
nodal points
Of all the rays passing through a lens from an off-axis object point to its corresponding image point, there is always one...
hologram
An interference pattern that is recorded on a high-resolution plate, the two interfering beams formed by a coherent beam...
free-space optical interconnect
A type of internal photonic connection in an integrated circuit in which a holographic grating is used to focus light at...
safelight
Filtered light to which photographic or other photosensitive materials are not responsive; used to illuminate darkrooms when...
Dove prism
A form of prism invented by H.W. Dove. It resembles half of a common right-angle prism in which a ray entering parallel to...
false color process
Entirely analogous to color photography, but inclusive of light bands that do not appear in the visible spectrum.
sky filter
A filter designed to decrease the luminosity of the sky without decreasing that of the landscape in the foreground. A filter...
hue
The perceptual term for that aspect of color described by words such as red, yellow or blue. Achromatic colors, such as...
integram
A reflection hologram using multiple color lasers that integrates various graphical techniques to allow the display of...
superior mirage
An image of an object that appears above the object's true position as the result of abnormal refraction of the image rays...
magenta
The reddish/purple color that results when equal amounts of blue and red are combined so that no one wavelength dominates.
CCD image sensor
A CCD image sensor, or charge-coupled device image sensor, is a type of electronic device used to convert optical images...
lateral color
Lens aberration resulting in image size variation as a function of wavelength. See also chromatic aberration.
aperture stop
A physical constraint, often a lens retainer, that limits the diameter of the axial light bundle allowed to pass through a...
hyperchromic shift
Hyperchromic shift refers to an increase in the absorption of light, leading to a higher absorbance, often observed in...
overhead projector
A projector used to project transparencies. A horizontal 8 x 10-in. stage for writing or laying down preformed...
minimum angle of deviation
The smallest angle through which light is bent by an optical element or system. In a prism, the angle of deviation is a...
color-sensitive
An emulsion that can record colored light.
Mangin mirror
A double-surfaced catadioptric spherical mirror whose spherical first surface consists of a negative meniscus (concave) lens...
Brewster's angle
For light incident on a plane boundary between two regions having different refractive indices, the angle of incidence at...
ospin
Opsins are a group of light-sensitive proteins found primarily in the retinas of vertebrate and invertebrate eyes, as well...
dichroic coating
A dichroic coating, also known as a dichroic filter or dichroic mirror, is an optical coating designed to selectively...
supertwisted birefringent effect display
A liquid crystal display using the material in its supertwisted nematic phase; the birefringence of the liquid crystal...
electrocapillarity modulator
A type of optical modulator with potential application in optical switching and displays, in which applied voltage causes a...
sequential color transmission
With respect to television, the transmission of the signals that originate from variously colored parts of an image in a...
cadmium sulfide
An inorganic compound, yellow to orange in color, that fluoresces strongly enough when bombarded by a high-current-density...
color center laser
Certain color centers in the alkali halides have been optically pumped to produce efficient tunable pulsed and...
thin-film coating
Thin-film coatings are layers of material applied to the surface of an object or substrate, typically to modify its optical,...
wedge
An optical element having plane-inclined surfaces. Usually the faces are inclined toward one another at very small angles....
Rowland circle
The circle that contains the slit, grating and primary astigmatic focus of a concave diffraction grating.
eye relief
Also termed eye distance. The distance between the vertex of the last optical surface of a visual optical system and the...
secondary bow
The indistinct rainbow that may sometimes be observed outside the distinct primary bow and that has its colors in opposite...
holographic camera
A holographic camera, also known as a holographic imaging system or holographic recorder, is a specialized device used to...
National Television Systems Committee
The code used to describe the United States system of color telecasting.
star testing
The visual examination by a trained observer of the image of a point source. Any coloring or departure from the Airy disc...
focal length
The focal length of a lens is the distance between the lens's optical center (or principal point) and the image sensor or...
iridescence
The rainbow exhibition of colors, usually caused by interference of light of different wavelengths reflected from...
texel
A contraction for "texture element." A base unit used in computer graphics that defines the surface of three-dimensional...
thin film
A thin layer of a substance deposited on an insulating base in a vacuum by a microelectronic process. Thin films are most...
adsorption indicator
A chemical placed in a solution that will indicate when an excess of a substance or ion has been reached by coloring the...
color
The attribute of visual experience that can be described as having quantitatively specifiable dimensions of hue, saturation,...
atomic absorption spectrometer
An atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) is an analytical instrument used to determine the concentration of specific chemical...
integral density
With respect to color photography, the measurement of the way the color film modulates the radiant flux in the optical...
near-field scanning optical microscope
A scanning probe microscope that analyzes the surface of a specimen by recording the intensity of light as it is focused...
organic light-emitting diode
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) technology that utilizes organic compounds to...
keratometer
See color perception test equipment; eye test apparatus.
powder camera
A camera system that uses a fine powder to diffract x-rays from the specimen. A beam of monochromatic x-rays passes through...
dispersion
Dispersion refers to the phenomenon where different wavelengths (colors) of light travel at different speeds when passing...
red, green, blue
RGB stands for red, green, blue, which are the primary colors of light used in additive color mixing. The RGB color model is...
false color
In imaging technology, assigning color to black and white images to differentiate features or convey information. Also...
chief ray
The ray that passes through the center of the aperture stop in an optical system. It often is called the principal ray of an...
breakout cable
A breakout cable, also known as a fan-out cable or breakout assembly, is a type of cable that combines multiple individual...
Littrow prism
A 30-60-90° spectrograph prism that is coated on the surface opposite the 60° angle with a reflecting film.
Fabry-Perot interferometer
A multiple-beam interferometer, usually consisting of two flat plates, with high reflective ability. The plates are set...
Bjerrum screen
In ophthalmic practice, an instrument that determines the boundaries of the field of view. It is composed of a 2-m square of...
equatorial mount
A telescope stand equipped with a polar axis that can be set parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation and a declination axis...
prism binoculars
A pair of telescopes with prismatically erected images, mounted side by side with the eyepieces at the interocular distance...
vertical-cavity laser diode
A type of surface-emitting laser diode that uses dielectric mirrors to produce surface emission. The laser cavity is...
halogen lamp
A halogen lamp, also known as a tungsten halogen, quartz-halogen, or quartz iodine lamp, is an incandescent lamp that uses a...
Abney effect
The alteration and reduction of color with the addition of white light. The perceived color shift that occurs as the...
triple aplanat
A compound lens consisting of two negative lenses of flint glass. A double-convex lens of crown glass is cemented between...
Michelson-Morley experiment
An optical experiment carried out conclusively in 1887 that demonstrated that the ether, a hypothetical medium postulated by...
dichroic mirror
A dichroic mirror, also known as a dichroic beamsplitter or interference filter beamsplitter, is an optical device that...
curvilinear distortion
A lens aberration in which the focal length varies radially outward from the center of the field. It has the effect of...
tristimulus integrator
A device used to produce numerical integrations for colorimetry.
process lens
A lens that is symmetrical and designed to work between 1:1 and about 4:1. It covers a field of about ±20° at f/8...
meniscus lens
A lens that has one convex surface and the other concave.
optical staining
With respect to microscopy, also called dispersive staining, optical staining the projection of colors through areas of a...
full wave compensator
A piece of uniform birefringent material placed at a 45° angle to the plane of polarization in a polarizing microscope...
optical glass
Optical glass refers to a type of glass specifically engineered and manufactured for use in optical components and systems,...
emission spectrum
An emission spectrum is a graphical representation or a characteristic pattern of the wavelengths or frequencies of light...
short-arc lamp
A compact high-pressure light source in which an electrical discharge between electrodes spaced no more than 12 mm apart...
additive color process
A process of color photography in which colors are added one to another in the form of light, rather than as colorants, to...
vignetting
In an optical system, the gradual reduction of image illuminance as the off-axis angle increases, resulting from limitations...
color thermogram
A thermogram in which temperature values are displayed in discrete thermal bands, each band possessing a distinct color.
machine vision
Machine vision, also known as computer vision or computer sight, refers to the technology that enables machines, typically...
Mach-Zehnder interferometer
A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is an optical device used to measure the phase difference between two collimated beams of...
pellicle mirror
A thin, stretched plastic membrane cemented to a rigid supporting ring. It may be coated to act as a beamsplitter, for...
trinoscope
A color-television viewing system with three kinescopes, three lenses and three deflection yokes used to form the red, green...
nonspectral color
A color whose hue is not produced by a single wavelength in the visible spectrum, but is instead produced by mixing the...
biocular
A term pertaining to devices (generally optical) designed for use with both eyes viewing through a single exit pupil. The...
liquid crystal eyewear
A wireless stereo imaging device used in conjunction with a monitor to produce a virtual interactive environment. Liquid...
color match
Condition in which two stimuli appear to match in color to a specified observer, or in which two objects appear to match in...
monochromatic
Composed of one color; having only one wavelength of radiation.
hyperspectral imaging camera
A hyperspectral imaging camera is a sophisticated imaging device capable of capturing and processing data across a wide...
microreciprocal degree
An approximated measure of the smallest change in color temperature detectable by the human eye, defined as the reciprocal...
saturation
1. The decrease of the absorption (or gain) coefficient of a medium near some transition frequency when the power of the...
infrared spectrophotometer
A spectrophotometer having a prism or, more frequently, a grating for the study and recording of infrared spectra. It...
double-crucible method
A method of fabricating an optical waveguide by melting the core and clad glasses in two suitably joined concentric...
lumen
A lumen is a unit of measurement used to quantify the amount of luminous flux, which is the perceived power of light. In...
white balance
A feature of some imaging devices, such as digital cameras, that allows them to compensate for different lighting conditions...
transparency illuminator
A metal box with an opal glass front enclosing a lamp, used for viewing color transparencies or x-ray films.
thermochromic material
A material that changes color as it is heated or cooled.
flicker photometer
A bench photometer that depends on the inability of the eye to distinguish color in brief flashes of light. Any difference...
rapid rectilinear lens
A double meniscus system in which two achromatized meniscus lenses are arranged symmetrically on either side of the aperture...
Lloyd's mirror
A mirror employed with a very high incidence angle to form a pair of coherent light sources by reflection, and therefore...
reflection grating
A reflection grating is an optical component that consists of a series of closely spaced, parallel reflecting surfaces or...
caustic
A surface that envelops a bundle of rays or bundle of normals to the wave surface. It may be observed as a hollow, luminous...
variable-focus condenser
An Abbe condenser in which the upper lens element is fixed. The lower lens may focus the illumination between the elements...
magnetic rotation spectroscopy
Technique in which the polarization rotation of light, and its relationship to the magnetic field strength can be analyzed...
transverse mode
In the context of optics and lasers, a transverse mode refers to a specific spatial pattern of the electric field within the...
spectrograph
An optical instrument for forming the spectrum of a light source and recording it on a film. The dispersing medium may be a...
Munsell Book Of Color
A collection of color samples arranged in charts according to equal visually spaced steps in Munsell hue, value and chroma.
clipping
A defect in an optical system that prevents rays from reaching their intended destination; it can be caused by an undersized...
silicon photodiode
A silicon photodiode is a semiconductor device that converts light into an electrical current. It is a type of photodetector...
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a laboratory technique used to detect and measure the presence of specific...
micro-LED
Micro-LED (micro-light-emitting diode) refers to a technology that involves the use of very small light-emitting diodes to...
Raman effect
When light is transmitted through matter, part of the light is scattered in random directions. A small part of the scattered...
spectral power distribution
The relative power emitted by a source as a function of wavelength. It determines the color-rendering properties of the...
cold mirror
A mirror whose coating serves to reflect visible radiation while transmitting the infrared.
GaN-based LEDs
Gallium nitride-based light-emitting diodes (GaN-based LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric...
convergence
1. In optics, the bending of light rays toward each other, as by a convex or positive lens. 2. Turning in the eyes to view a...
perceived color
The apparent color, as seen by the human eye, as distinguished from color as a measurable property of light.
linear image sensor
A linear image sensor is a type of solid-state electronic device used to capture and convert light into electrical signals....
surround
A term that describes both the color and intensity of the immediate environment of the object or image being viewed.
principal plane
In a lens or lens system, that surface at which the projections of an entering and exiting ray intersect. Also known as the...
selective transmission
Transmission in different amounts as a function of wavelength, as a result of absorption and scattering, leading to color...
optical time-domain reflectometry
A method for characterizing a fiber wherein an optical pulse is transmitted through the fiber, and the resulting light...
sag
1. In the geometric sense, an abbreviation for the term "sagitta,'' the height of a curve measured from the chord. ...
trichroism
The characteristic of displaying three colors when observed in as many separate directions.
astigmatism
A lens aberration that results in the tangential and sagittal image planes being separated axially.
photopic vision
Vision by means of retinal cones; color vision. Relatively high levels of luminance are required for photopic vision.
birefringence
Birefringence is an optical property of certain materials that causes them to exhibit different refractive indices for light...
monochrome
Made up of a single color.
direct-vision prism
An assembly of multiple prisms that disperses incident light into its spectral components without deviating light at the...
slide projector
An optical projection device designed to project positive color transparencies onto a screen for viewing.
constant luminance encoder
A device used in broadcast CCD cameras to improve definition in heavily saturated colors by band-limiting the color...
subtractive color process
The basic process of color photography whereby colors are subtracted from white light by means of filters, making all colors...
Snellen letter
The letter form used on visual performance test charts. The overall letter height is equal to five times the thickness of...
Munsell hue
Numerical scale of hue devised by A.H. Munsell and exhibited in the Munsell Book of Color.
spectrophotometer
A spectrophotometer is a scientific instrument used to measure the intensity of light at various wavelengths in the...
Young's two-slit interference
The method by which Thomas Young in 1802 disproved Newton's corpuscular theory of light by the formation of interference...
binocular luster
The glossy appearance of an object viewed, because of the binocular combination of two very unlike colors.
fiber-coupled LED
A fiber-coupled LED (light-emitting diode) refers to an LED device that is optically coupled to an optical fiber for the...
ultraviolet densitometry
A technique, involving spectrophotometry in the ultraviolet, that is designed to determine the colors of thin-layer...
periscope
An optical instrument designed to displace the line of sight in a vertical direction. For submarines and other military uses...
fluorographic lens
A lens having an extremely high aperture and used in the recording of x-ray fluorescent screen images. It often is specially...
pixel
A pixel, short for "picture element," is the smallest controllable element of a digital image or display. It is a...
retrofocus lens
Also known as reversed telephoto lens. A lens consisting of an ordinary objective with a negative component near its front...
magnesium fluoride
A colorless, crystalline compound whose low refractive index (n = 1.38) makes it effective as a lens antireflection coating...
color facsimile transmission
The transmission of a color photograph by separating the colors into varying intensities of red, blue and green, and then...
color holography
The recording of three or more separate holograms having a different color on a medium, so that illumination with a tricolor...

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