Application of reflectance transformation imaging in subtle traces detection of metal surface
Jie Dai, Lihua Huang, Xinran Zhu, Liqing Lin, Kai Guo, Huijie Huang · AOPC 2020: Optical Sensing and Imaging Technology · 2020
Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) is a computational photography technology that allows interactive manipulation of virtual lighting within two-dimensional images to enhance object surface information. RTI is based on the reflection characteristics of the surface of the object characterized by a specific parabolic function, of which the most classic is Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) based on biquadratic polynomial. Therefore, RTI is ideal for diffusely reflecting objects, and metal materials with specular reflection are nearly out of consideration before. In this article, several metal samples with different surface topography were selected to explore the potential of RTI for subtle traces on metal surfaces. The results show that, with the cooperation of different image enhancement algorithms, especially Specular Enhancement and Diffuse Gain, RTI can be well applied to the detection of metal, even metal with relatively strong specular reflection. And the No-Reference Structural Sharpness (NRSS) assessment is consistent with subjective perception, confirming that RTI not only helps to explore the 2D or 3D geometric texture of the surface of metal materials, but also plays an important role in understanding and spreading the cultural phenomena implied in the content on metal surfaces. Promisingly, RTI is expected to be extended to a wider range of fields.