Data of a captured image including a polarized image is acquired (S10), and space information relating to a position and a posture of a subject in a real space and the position and the posture on an imaging plane is acquired using the captured image data (S12). Next, a polarization degree distribution is acquired from a polarized image of a plurality of orientations (S14), and a position of a light source is acquired by specifying an image of a true light source by threshold value determination of the polarization degree (S16). A reflection characteristic is acquired by applying a rendering equation under assumption that luminance of the captured image is already known (S18), and a material suitable therewith is specified as a material of the subject (S20). Processing according to the material is performed to generate output data and output the data (S22).

A method for identifying a composition material of an object located in an environment surrounding at least one device, in which at least one sensor is mounted on the device and communicates with at least one central processing unit.

An evaluation method of a silicon wafer allows non-destructive and non-contact inspection of a slip that affects the electrical properties of semiconductor devices, without being subjected to restrictions of the surface condition of silicon wafers or processing contents as much as possible. The evaluation method of a silicon wafer includes a step of section analysis where a surface of a single crystal silicon wafer after thermal processing is divided by equally-spaced lines into sections with an area of 1 mm.sup.2 or more and 25 mm.sup.2 or less and the existence of strain in each of the sections is determined based on a depolarization value of polarized infrared light, and a screening step where the wafer is evaluated as non-defective when the number of adjacent sections being determined to have strain by the section analysis step does not exceed a predetermined threshold value.

A scanning device for laser detection and ranging (LiDAR), the scanning device includes, arranged in optical free space: an optical input for receiving a pulsed broadband laser beam having a linear polarization; a separating unit configured for transmitting the laser beam along a scanning optical path while changing the polarization into a circular one; a wavelength selection unit; and a scanning unit.

The separating unit is configured for deviating the reflections (4) on a broadband detector while changing the orthogonal circular polarization into an orthogonal linear polarization compared to the linear polarization of the laser beam. The broadband detector is configured to receive the deviated reflections, and to detect a time-of-flight and an optical power of the light reflection.

A method for identifying a composition material of an object located in an environment surrounding at least one device, the object moving relative to the device, in which at least one sensor is mounted on the device and communicates with at least one central processing unit.

Methods, apparatuses, and systems for detecting and classifying individual airborne biological and non-biological particles, in real time, based on particle size and polarized elastic scatter. Auto-fluorescence content may also be used along with particle size and polarized elastic scatter for further orthogonal classification. With polarized elastic scattering, the degree of linear or circular depolarization produced from particle morphology, refractive index, internal asymmetric structures and molecular optical activity can be used for classifying individual airborne particles. Alternatively, circular intensity differential scattering (CIDS) or linear intensity differential scattering (LIDS) can be used to discriminate individual particles.

An evaluation method of a silicon wafer allows non-destructive and non-contact inspection of a slip that affects the electrical properties of semiconductor devices, without being subjected to restrictions of the surface condition of silicon wafers or processing contents as much as possible. The evaluation method of a silicon wafer includes a step of section analysis where a surface of a single crystal silicon wafer after thermal processing is divided by equally-spaced lines into sections with an area of 1 mm.sup.2 or more and 25 mm.sup.2 or less and the existence of strain in each of the sections is determined based on a depolarization value of polarized infrared light, and a screening step where the wafer is evaluated as non-defective when the number of adjacent sections being determined to have strain by the section analysis step does not exceed a predetermined threshold value.

Data of a captured image including a polarized image is acquired (S10), and space information relating to a position and a posture of a subject in a real space and the position and the posture on an imaging plane is acquired using the captured image data (S12). Next, a polarization degree distribution is acquired from a polarized image of a plurality of orientations (S14), and a position of a light source is acquired by specifying an image of a true light source by threshold value determination of the polarization degree (S16). A reflection characteristic is acquired by applying a rendering equation under assumption that luminance of the captured image is already known (S18), and a material suitable therewith is specified as a material of the subject (S20). Processing according to the material is performed to generate output data and output the data (S22).

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for measuring polarization properties and phase information, for example as can be used in microscopy applications. According to one example of the disclosed technology, an apparatus includes a light source, an interferometer configured to receive light generated by the light source and split the received light into two split beam outputs. The split beam outputs including combined, interfering light beams. Two light sensors, each including a polarization-sensitive focal plane array receive a respective one of the split beam outputs from the interferometer. Thus, some examples of the disclosed technology allows for simultaneous or concurrent measurement of properties of light including intensity, wavelength, polarization, and phase. The polarization-sensitive focal plane array includes a number of macropixels, each of which includes superpixels having different polarization filtering properties, each of which includes one or morepixels, which comprise filters for different colors.

A micro object detection apparatus (11) includes an optical system (50). The first optical system (50) includes a first reflection region (101), a second reflection region (102), and a light reception element (6). The first reflection region (101) has an ellipsoidal shape, and reflects scattered light scattered when irradiation light hits a particle (R) to direct the scattered light to the light reception element (6), by utilizing two focal point positions of the ellipsoidal shape. The second reflection region (102) reflects scattered light coming from the particle (R) to direct the scattered light to the first reflection region (101), so that the scattered light is directed to the light reception element (6) by utilizing the ellipsoidal shape of the first reflection region (101). The light flux diameter of the scattered light reflected by the second reflection region (102) is larger than the particle (R), at the position of the particle (R) at which the scattered light is generated.