Patent ID: 9395299
Filing Date: 2016-07-19
CPC Classification: G01N,G06T

Claim Text:
1. A method for use in designing an automobile dashboard, wherein the method comprises the following steps: a1) determining a refractive index of an opaque plastic material forming a portion of a dashboard of a vehicle using an ellipsometer; a2) measuring a spectrum of total reflectance on the material using a spectrophotometer; and a3) determining a geometry of the profile of said material by: b) determining, for each direction (θ c) determining, for each direction (θ d) on the basis of the angle of incidence of the light ζ (θ e) circulating the specular component SC of the BRDF as: where: D is the aforesaid probability distribution of the orientation of the microfaces; F is the aforesaid Fresnel factor; and G is a corrective factor of the probability D, which takes into account the effect of masking of the light, reflected from a microface, by the adjacent microfaces; f) evaluating the primary Lambertian component, or primary scattered component, of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF), which is a function of the wavelength λ, as difference between the spectrum of the total reflectance, previously measured on the specimen, and the integral ∫(SC)cos θ o dΩ of the specular component SC calculated previously; g) correcting the primary Lambertian component multiplying it by the following compensation factor: where: G is the aforesaid masking factor; and D so as to obtain the Lambertian component LC of the BRDF; h) calculating the total BRDF as the sum of the Lambertian component and of the specular component: determining if the total BRDF is compatible with requirements of good visibility for a driver of the vehicle to aid in designing the dashboard of the vehicle.