Abstract

A first approximation calculation of the radiance or the retroreflected flux of light received by the automobile driver from a glass sphere partially embedded in highway marking paint is presented. The observed retroreflection arises mainly from the diffuse reflection at the painted region of the spherical cap on the rear surface of the sphere. It is found that the optimum value of embedment in paint for glass beads of refractive index 1.50 is 59% (+5%, −0%) of the diameter for high retroreflection at all distances.

© 1978 Optical Society of America

Retroreflection from spherical glass beads in highway pavement markings. 1: Specular reflection

M. D. Stoudt and K. Vedam
Appl. Opt. 17(12) 1855-1858 (1978)

Retroreflection from rough surfaces

T. S. Trowbridge
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 68(9) 1225-1242 (1978)

Simulation of small- and wide-angle scattering properties of glass-bead retroreflectors

D. Héricz, T. Sarkadi, G. Erdei, T. Lazuech, S. Lenk, and P. Koppa
Appl. Opt. 56(14) 3969-3976 (2017)

Study of the refractive index of microscopic glass beads by light-refraction analysis

F. Sarcinelli, R. Pizzoferrato, and F. Scudieri
Appl. Opt. 36(34) 8999-9004 (1997)

Quasi-retroreflection from corner cubes with refractive free-form surfaces

Shin-Woong Park, Eunkyong Moon, Hayun Chung, Joon-Yong Lee, Chanyeol Bae, Jin-Woo Kim, and Hwi Kim
Appl. Opt. 53(28) 6605-6611 (2014)