Radiance based method for accurate determination of volume scattering parameters using GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo

摘要

Volume scattering is an important effect in different fields, ranging from biologyto lighting. Models for volume scattering usually rely on parameters that are estimated withinverse methods that iteratively fit simulations to experimental data. To obtain accurate estimatesfor these parameters, the scattered intensity distribution can be used in such fitting methods.However, it has been shown that for samples with long optical path lengths this type of data mayresult in poor parameter estimates. In this work, an inverse procedure is proposed that fits toscattered radiance distributions. By taking advantage of current generation graphics processingunits, the method implemented is sufficiently efficient to allow performing an in-depth simulationstudy on the difference between using radiance or intensity distributions to estimate the volumescattering parameters of samples. This work shows that for samples with moderate optical pathlengths, the intensity distribution contains sufficient information to accurately estimate the volumescattering properties. However, for longer optical path lengths, the descriptive power of theintensity distribution is not enough and radiance distribution based methods, such as the inversemethod proposed, are better suited.