The Spectral Reflectances of Hair, Skin, Wigs and Beards in the Visible and near Infrared and their Influence on PICTUREPHONE® Image Quality

P. M. Tannenbaum

Experiments are described which isolate the causes for excessive “five o'clock shadow” and dark synthetic wigs which appear blond when viewed on present Bell System visual telephone (PICTUREPHONE®) station sets. Experimental data on the spectral reflectance of hair, skin, synthetic wigs and shaven male beards, as taken from the existing literature and from measurements in our laboratory, are presented in order to explain these effects. An optical filter is suggested which corrects both the shadow and wig problems simultaneously, but at the expense of camera sensitivity.

Print ISSN
Published
1973-10
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J08139