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Mapping the luminance values of a visual scene is of broad interest to accident reconstructionists, human factors professionals, and lighting experts. Such mappings are useful for a variety of purposes, including determining the effectiveness and appropriateness of lighting installations, and performing visibility analyses for accident case studies. Previous work has shown that pixel intensity captured by consumer-grade digital still cameras can be calibrated to estimate luminance [1-7]. Taking a digital still image and converting this image into a luminance map even further reduces the time required for luminance measurement. Suway and Suway previously presented a methodology for estimating luminance from digital images and video of a scene [1]. In this paper, the authors update this methodology for calculating luminance from a digital camera.

Mapping the luminance values of a visual scene is of broad interest to accident reconstructionists, human factors professionals, and lighting experts. Such mappings are useful for a variety of purposes, including determining the effectiveness and appropriateness of lighting installations, and performing visibility analyses for accident case studies. One of the most common methods for mapping luminance is to use a spot type luminance meter. This requires individual measurements of all objects of interest and can be extremely time consuming. Luminance cameras can also be used to create a luminance map. While luminance cameras will map a scene’s luminance values more quickly than a spot luminance meter, commercially available luminance cameras typically require long capture times during low illuminance (up to 30 seconds). Previous work has shown that pixel intensity captured by consumer-grade digital still cameras can be calibrated to measure luminance.