An Imaging Polarimeter for the Study of Biological Principles of Polarized-Light Vision

用于研究偏振光视觉生物学原理的成像旋光仪

• 批准号: 9317927
• 负责人: Thomas Cronin
• 金额: $ 14万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland Baltimore County
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-04-15 至 1996-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9317927&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Imaging; Polarimeter; Study; Biological; Principles

9317927 Cronin Light in nature frequently becomes linearly polarized due to its interactions with scattering particles in the atmosphere and under water, and to its reflection from biological and nonliving dielectric surfaces. Under some circumstances, these events can produce light that is almost completely polarized, and partially linearly polarized light is widely present in nature. Because the interactions of light that produce partial linear polarization are complex, the actual pattern of polarization in any visual field is similarly complicated. Animals have exploited the polarization of natural light for a variety of functions, including navigation, orientation, location of water surfaces, and enhancement of visual contrast. In fact, it now seems that the great majority of animal species have visual specializations for the detection and analysis of partially linearly polarized light, and it is probable that for many of these species polarization vision plays a similarly significant role as color vision plays for species like ourselves. However, the study of polarization vision has been limited by our inability to visualize or analyze natural fields of polarization. In this proposal, we describe a design for a new, imaging polarimeter that will be capable of providing complete descriptions of the distribution of polarized light (e-vector orientation, percent polarization, and intensity) at single-pixel resolution throughout an extended visual field. The instrument will be completely portable, and usable both in terrestrial and aquatic environments. It will obtain polarization images rapidly and will present the data on line, using false-color displays to convey the polarization information in a form intuitively interpretable by a human observer. All data will be stored in numerical form for appropriate mathematical analysis, making possible transformations into the visual systems of animals. We believe that such an instrument will open new windows into the sensory worlds of other species, and will have broad application for studies of biology, perception, and machine vision.

9317927克罗宁自然界中的光由于与大气和水下散射粒子的相互作用以及从生物和非生命介质表面的反射而经常变成线偏振。在某些情况下，这些事件可以产生几乎完全偏振光，而部分线偏振光在自然界中广泛存在。因为产生部分线性偏振的光的相互作用是复杂的，任何视野中的实际偏振模式也同样复杂。动物利用自然光的偏振来实现各种功能，包括导航、定向、水面定位和增强视觉对比。事实上，现在看来，绝大多数动物物种都有检测和分析部分线偏振光的视觉专门化，很可能对这些物种中的许多物种来说，偏振视觉起着与我们人类的色觉相似的重要作用。然而，偏振视觉的研究一直受到我们无法可视化或分析自然偏振场的限制。在本提案中，我们描述了一种新的成像偏振光计的设计，它将能够在扩展的视野中以单像素分辨率提供偏振光分布（e矢量方向，偏振百分比和强度）的完整描述。该仪器将完全便携，可在陆地和水生环境中使用。它将快速获取偏振图像，并将数据在线呈现，使用假彩色显示以人类观察者可直观解释的形式传达偏振信息。所有数据将以数字形式存储，以便进行适当的数学分析，从而可能转换为动物的视觉系统。我们相信这样的仪器将为其他物种的感官世界打开新的窗口，并将在生物学，感知和机器视觉的研究中有广泛的应用。