High Dynamic Range Techniques in Graphics: from Acquisition to Display

This course is motivated by tremendous progress in the development and accessibility of high dynamic range technology (HDR) that happened just recently, which creates many interesting opportunities and challenges in graphics. The course presents a complete pipeline for HDR image and video processing from acquisition, through compression and quality evaluation, to display. Also, successful examples of the use of HDR technology in research setups and industrial applications are provided. Whenever needed relevant background information on human perception is given which enables better understanding of the design choices behind the discussed algorithms and HDR equipment. Description of images, from left to right: • Acquisition of HDR data: two HDR cameras (IMS-CHIPS and LarsIII) and a high quality LDR camera Jenoptik C14. • HDR video: a broad range of luminance values can be stored in the HDR video without loss of any perceivable details. Even the bare light bulb is faithfully registered, as visible in the blue window which scales down the luminance range. • HDR video: a conventional video in this shot could be exposed either for the interior or exterior of the cafeteria. With the HDR video it is possible to capture and store all details of the recorded scene. • Tone mapping: most display devices are still limited in the dynamic range of luminance and contrast that can be reproduced (right inset illustrates a naive display of an HDR image). Various tone mapping techniques allow for reduction of such a contrast. Here the image is decomposed into the areas of consistent illumination (left inset) and the contrast ratio between these areas is optimized. • HDR display: a display system developed by the Sunnybrook company that is capable of displaying images with a dynamic range much more similar to that encountered in the real world. EG2005 Tutorial 7 High Dynamic Range Techniques in Graphics