Volume 8, Issue 2 - Interdisciplinary Simulation / Guest Editors: Fabian Duerr and Alois Herkommer

In a recent survey, 125 cinematographers were asked to describe their teaching experiences. This article summarises their responses to eight question modules. The top three teaching topics are lighting design, artistic use of the lens and picture composition for film and television cameras. From all actual technological developments, digital colour grading is seen as having the greatest impact on teaching cinematography, as well as on cinematography itself. While almost all teachers use digital cameras for their daily work, about 40% still also use traditional film in their courses. Even in the digital age, the traditional film helps draw the students’ attention away from technical options towards precision and accuracy in the actual recording of scenes.

The purpose of this essay is to summarize and critically evaluate the epistemological and pragmatic questions with regard to computer simulations as a new technological-scientific format as put forth in current philosophical debates. Computer simulation practices are situated in the broader context of model-building practices and experimentation; the scope and limits of knowledge generated by computer simulations are considered.

In recent years, the precision of the manufacturing process for optical surfaces has improved tremendously. As a result, freefrom surfaces have become more attractive options for imaging applications with increased accuracy requirements. However, with regards the integration into an optical system, performance is often limited due to surface imperfections, such as mid-spatial frequency errors and alignment errors. This demonstrates the need for a more holistic description of systems, including multiple freeform components, which enable performance predictions based on the system as a whole. In this work, a solution for such a simulation is presented and verified by a comparison with the experimental data. This procedure not only predicts system performance but also supports tolerancing and easier alignment.

This work deals with the simulation-based investigation and control of optical systems that are mechanically influenced. Here, the focus is on the dynamic-optical modeling of vibration-sensitive, segmented mirror systems, which are used, for example, in large astronomic telescopes. Furthermore, an adaptive optical unit usually compensates for the optical aberrations due to atmospheric disturbances. In practice, these aberrations are detected and corrected within a few seconds using deformable mirrors. However, to further improve the performance of these optical systems, dynamic disturbances in the mechanics, i.e. small movements and deformations of the optical surfaces, must also be taken into account. For the investigation of such cases, multidisciplinary simulation methods are developed and presented.

For many laser machining applications, an assist gas is required. However, for applications with high pressure or temperature gradients, the density of the assist gas is not homogeneous. Thus, the laser propagation is influenced by the density properties within the turbulent gas. In this article, an overview and example results of the influence of a nozzle geometry on the light propagation in two dimensions are presented.

Modern science becomes more complex day after day. Besides, there appeared many unpredictable links between different subjects, which we never expected to be connected. This is called ‘interdisciplinary’ science. For example, just occasionally we found common points in the simulation of the starting input for optical and architectural design, and moreover, we discovered a lot of similar procedures in both of them. Basing on the analysis of these two fields of knowledge, as well as using optical expert and architectural expert evaluations, we propose an approach to build a heuristic algorithm for computer aided design in these two fields. Later, we expect that it grows into a set of expert systems under the roof of artificial intelligence. We see in the near future a prospective of using new technology in design–building information modeling, which could be expanded from architectural design to optical design, etc. Besides, this is our first experience in this field. We consider that it is possible to widen it further to other subjects. The main ideas of this approach are presented.

We present a new type of Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) sensor based on a variable lens pair prism. This system combines the principles of macro- and microscanners to exploit the advantages and eliminate most of the disadvantages of both system types. We describe the concept of this new LiDAR sensor and examine the system performance by simulation. Afterwards, we investigate the spot shape and beam profile with respect to the main system parameters such as the gap between lenses, the deflection angle, and the measurement distance. Furthermore, we present solutions to optimize the variable lens pair prism to achieve an ideal spot shape and beam profile in the entire field of view (FoV).