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brightness

 
Dictionary: bright·ness   (brīt'nĭs) pronunciation
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n.
  1. The state or quality of being bright.
  2. The effect or sensation by means of which an observer is able to distinguish differences in luminance.
  3. The dimension of a color that represents its similarity to one of a series of achromatic colors ranging from very dim (dark) to very bright (dazzling).

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Computer Desktop Encyclopedia: brightness
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The black level of a display screen. Although it may sound peculiar, the brightness adjusts the "black level" of the display system (how black the black is). See contrast.

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Marketing Dictionary: brightness
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Degree to which paper reflects light. Generally, the higher the grade of paper, the greater the brightness. Brightness can impact the scan capability of optical scanning equipment. See also optical character recognition.

Architecture: brightness
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That attribute of visual perception in accordance with which a surface appears to emit more light or less light. Now called luminance.

World of the Mind: brightness
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The sensation of light which is roughly associated with the intensity of light at the eye, or its luminance. The sensation of brightness is affected by the adaptation level of the eye and by various contrast phenomena — so brightness cannot be measured simply in physical units.

(Published 1987)
Veterinary Dictionary: brightness
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Said of a fleece of wool, a desirable characteristic found in superior fleeces. Consists of a white color and good light reflection.

Word Tutor: brightness
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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: The quality or amount of light coming from an object.

pronunciation Cleaning the silver platter increased its brightness.

Wikipedia: Brightness
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Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to be radiating or reflecting light.[1] In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by the luminance of a visual target. This is a subjective attribute/property of an object being observed.

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Terminology

"Brightness" was formerly used as a synonym for the photometric term luminance and (incorrectly) for the radiometric term radiance. As defined by the US Federal Glossary of Telecommunication Terms (FS-1037C), "brightness" should now be used only for non-quantitative references to physiological sensations and perceptions of light.[2]

A given target luminance can elicit different perceptions of brightness in different contexts; see, for example, White's illusion and Wertheimer-Benary illusion.

In the RGB color space, brightness can be thought of as the arithmetic mean μ of the red, green, and blue color coordinates (although some of the three components make the light seem brighter than others, which, again, may be compensated by some display systems automatically):[3]

\mu = {R + G + B \over 3 }

Brightness is also a color coordinate in the HSB or HSV color space (hue, saturation, and brightness or value).

With regard to stars, brightness is quantified as apparent magnitude and absolute magnitude

Brightness of sounds

The term "brightness" is also used in discussions of sound timbres, in a rough analogy with visual brightness. Timbre researchers consider brightness to be one of the perceptually strongest distinctions between sounds[4], and formalize it acoustically as an indication of the amount of high-frequency content in a sound, using a measure such as the spectral centroid.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Merriam-Webster.com Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of bright
  2. ^ “Brightness” in Federal Standard 1037C, the Federal Glossary of Telecommunication Terms (1996)
  3. ^ What are HSB and HLS?, Charles Poynton: "The usual formulation of HSB and HLS compute so-called "lightness" or "brightness" as (R+G+B)/3. This computation conflicts badly with the properties of colour vision, as it computes yellow to be about six times more intense than blue with the same "lightness" value (say L=50)."
  4. ^ D. Wessel, Timbre space as a musical control structure, Computer Music Journal, 3 (1979), pp. 45–52.

External links

Search Wiktionary Look up brightness in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. THIS COPYRIGHTED DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY.
All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.
© 1981-2009 Computer Language Company Inc.  All rights reserved.  Read more
Marketing Dictionary. Dictionary of Marketing Terms. Copyright © 2000 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
World of the Mind. The Oxford Companion to the Mind. Second Edition. Copyright © Oxford University Press, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Brightness".  Read more