Apparatuses and methods for microscopic analysis of a sample using spatial light manipulation to increase signal to noise ratio are described herein.

An optical head for receiving an incident light is provided. The optical head comprises a reflective diffuser and a reflector disposed to face the reflective diffuser. The reflective diffuser is disposed in an optical path of the incident light and shields the reflector from the incident light. The reflective diffuser converts the incident light to scattered light having a Lambertian pattern. The reflector has an optical output section that transmits the scattered light and a reflective section that reflects the scattered light to the reflective diffuser and/or the other portions of the reflective sections. An optical system using the optical head is also provided.

An optical radiation source produced from a disordered semiconductor material, such as black silicon, is provided. The optical radiation source includes a semiconductor substrate, a disordered semiconductor structure etched in the semiconductor substrate and a heating element disposed proximal to the disordered semiconductor structure and configured to heat the disordered semiconductor structure to a temperature at which the disordered semiconductor structure emits thermal infrared radiation.

Provided is a light condensing unit including a reflection member having a hollow dome shape a side wall of which is curved to be extended from a top portion toward a bottom portion, the reflection member having a mirror-finished inner surface, and a plurality of light irradiation members arranged around an outer wall of the reflection member and configured to irradiate an irradiation region of the top portion with light through a first opening portion formed in the outer wall. The reflection member includes a second opening portion formed in the irradiation region of the top portion, and a third opening portion formed in the bottom portion to face a light receiving lens of a light receiving unit, the light receiving unit being configured to perform a predetermined process on received light.

Apparatus for measuring spectral reflectance of a surface, the apparatus comprising: a chamber comprising a wall formed having an aperture defined by an aperture boundary; a light source mounted to the chamber and having a field of illumination (FOI) configured to intersect the aperture at an illumination intersection; and an optical fiber mounted to the chamber and having a field of view (FOV) configured to intersect the aperture at an imaging intersection; wherein the chamber is configured so that when the aperture is positioned on a surface the chamber substantially prevents light from entering a volume of the chamber.

An electronic device or entertainment gaming machine comprising: at least one betting terminal having a software program or plurality of software programs that allow at least a second player to place a bet on a jackpot if a first player declines the right to place a bet on the jackpot, wherein the second player is at a betting terminal that is apart from the conventional casino table game and the first player is playing at a conventional casino table game and is granted a right of first refusal to place a bet on jackpot by virtue of the first player's bet on the conventional casino table game, wherein the outcome of the jackpot is determined according to a combination of cards or dice in the conventional casino table game.

An electronic device may have a display with a cover layer. An ambient light sensor may be aligned with an ambient light sensor window formed from an opening in a masking layer on the cover layer in an inactive portion of the display. To help mask the ambient light sensor window from view, the ambient light sensor window may be provided with a black coating that matches the appearance of surrounding masking layer material while allowing light to reach the ambient light sensor. The black coating may be formed from a black physical vapor deposition thin-film inorganic layer with a high index of refraction. An antireflection layer formed from a stack of dielectric layers may be interposed between the black thin-film inorganic layer and the display cover layer.

An optical head for receiving incident light is provided. The optical head comprises a transmissive cosine corrector and a reflector disposed to face the transmissive cosine corrector. The transmissive cosine corrector is disposed in an optical path of the incident light and shields the reflector from the incident light. The transmissive cosine corrector converts the incident light to scattered light having a Lambertian pattern. The reflector has an optical output section that transmits the scattered light and a reflective section that reflects the scattered light to the transmissive cosine corrector and/or the other portions of the reflective sections. An optical system using the optical head is also provided.

A hand held spectrometer is used to illuminate the object and measure the one or more spectra. The spectral data of the object can be used to determine one or more attributes of the object. In many embodiments, the spectrometer is coupled to a database of spectral information that can be used to determine the attributes of the object. The spectrometer system may comprise a hand held communication device coupled to a spectrometer, in which the user can input and receive data related to the measured object with the hand held communication device. The embodiments disclosed herein allow many users to share object data with many people, in order to provide many people with actionable intelligence in response to spectral data.

An optical assembly is disclosed including two laterally variable bandpass optical filters stacked at a fixed distance from each other, so that the upstream filter functions as a spatial filter for the downstream filter. The lateral displacement may cause a suppression of the oblique beam when transmission passbands at impinging locations of the oblique beam onto the upstream and downstream filters do not overlap. A photodetector array may be disposed downstream of the downstream filter. The optical assembly may be coupled via a variety of optical conduits or optical fibers for spectroscopic measurements of a flowing sample.