Evaluating Human Photoreceptoral Inputs from Night-Time Lights Using RGB Imaging Photometry

Journal of Imaging

Salvador Bará¹  Jaime Zamorano²  Nicolás Cardiel²  CarlosE. Tapia²  Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel³  KevinJ. Gaston³  Martin Aubé⁴ 

[1] Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain;Departamento de Física de la Tierra y Astrofísica, Instituto de Física de Partículas y del Cosmos (IPARCOS), Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain;Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE, UK;Physics Department, CEGEP de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1E 4K1, Canada;

关键词: light pollution;    imaging;    artificial light at night;    night-time lights;    DSLR cameras;    RGB sensors;    non-visual effects of light;    circadian phototransduction;   

DOI  :  10.3390/jimaging5040049

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Night-time lights interact with human physiology through different pathways starting at the retinal layers of the eye; from the signals provided by the rods; the S-, L- and M-cones; and the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC). These individual photic channels combine in complex ways to modulate important physiological processes, among them the daily entrainment of the neural master oscillator that regulates circadian rhythms. Evaluating the relative excitation of each type of photoreceptor generally requires full knowledge of the spectral power distribution of the incoming light, information that is not easily available in many practical applications. One such instance is wide area sensing of public outdoor lighting; present-day radiometers onboard Earth-orbiting platforms with sufficient nighttime sensitivity are generally panchromatic and lack the required spectral discrimination capacity. In this paper, we show that RGB imagery acquired with off-the-shelf digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR) can be a useful tool to evaluate, with reasonable accuracy and high angular resolution, the photoreceptoral inputs associated with a wide range of lamp technologies. The method is based on linear regressions of these inputs against optimum combinations of the associated R, G, and B signals, built for a large set of artificial light sources by means of synthetic photometry. Given the widespread use of RGB imaging devices, this approach is expected to facilitate the monitoring of the physiological effects of light pollution, from ground and space alike, using standard imaging technology.

【 授权许可】

Unknown