Radiance based method for accurate determination of volume scattering parameters using GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo

Volume scattering is an important effect in different fields, ranging from biology to lighting. Models for volume scattering usually rely on parameters that are estimated with inverse methods that iteratively fit simulations to experimental data. To obtain accurate estimates for these parameters, the scattered intensity distribution can be used in such fitting methods. However, it has been shown that for samples with long optical path lengths this type of data may result in poor parameter estimates. In this work, an inverse procedure is proposed that fits to scattered radiance distributions. By taking advantage of current generation graphics processing units, the method implemented is sufficiently efficient to allow performing an in-depth simulation study on the difference between using radiance or intensity distributions to estimate the volume scattering parameters of samples. This work shows that for samples with moderate optical path lengths, the intensity distribution contains sufficient information to accurately estimate the volume scattering properties. However, for longer optical path lengths, the descriptive power of the intensity distribution is not enough and radiance distribution based methods, such as the inverse method proposed, are better suited.