This program is an interactive 3D visualization showing dispersion of light by a trichroic prism (consisting of three prisms and two polarizing filters). It's also a nice example how to use VTK with interactive widgets and shaders.
Trichroic prisms are used in 3CCD cameras, which uses three separate image sensors, each one taking a separate measurement of the primary colors, red, green, or blue light. Light coming into the lens is split by a trichroic prism assembly, which directs the appropriate wavelength ranges of light to their respective sensors. The system is employed by still cameras, telecine systems, professional video cameras and some prosumer video cameras.
Compared to cameras with only one CCD, 3CCD cameras generally provide superior image quality through enhanced resolution and lower noise. By contrast, almost all single-CCD cameras use a Bayer filter, which allows them to detect only one-third of the color information for each pixel. The other two-thirds must be interpolated with a demosaicing algorithm to 'fill in the gaps', resulting in a much lower effective resolution.
$ waf configure --prefix=./install
$ waf build install
$ ./install/bin/prism
Click to view.
