Vase Shaped Vase
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When light passes from one medium to another, the difference in speed of spreading light could cause redirection, this phenomenon is named “refraction”. In our daily life, refraction or caustics could be observed in a variety of situations, e.g., bottom of swimming pool, an acrylic sculpt, or even a cup of water in the glass. However, in most cases, people couldn’t tell the shape of caustics from its original outline, and I think it would be quite an interesting scenario if people could read different messages from objects’ refraction.
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Thus, I chose to make a vase with a rectangle outline, in contrast, the light travelling through the vase will refract into a classical vase shape. Try to figure out the game of refraction.
First Try (*Fail)
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In the beginning, the first thought that came to my mind was “distracting”. By remapping the grayscale of the image into a weight map, attracting or distracting the photon particles to illustrate a grayscale image. However, after I had done the weight map and rearranged photons, I was unable to trace back the shape of the lens since I only calculate the normal (or angle) of each particle without continuous overall height (or depth) information that can form a surface.
Use image as a weight map and rearrange the photons.
Alternative Method
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Therefore, I try another way to trace the pattern. In the first method, the path of light is computed top-down, second method, in contrast, I try to project the graph bottom-up. Every bright pixel of a pattern can be seen as a focal point of a convex lens, and a line or curve is a combination of points. Accordingly, I use the final graph's outline as a group of focal points to back-calculate the overall shape of the lens. In other words, the result can also be seen as a sum of multiple convex lenses.
With the help of the program, the light path can be simulated and visualized, which provides me with a flexible platform to adjust and view the result in real time.
The simulative results from the different distances between the vase and the focal plane.
Focus on Interest
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By developing this tiny project, I hope to build a foundation of refraction and reflection design for my personal design research path. In addition, I hope this vase can bring a different vision to the viewers and broaden their imagination.
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