Viewing Cone
When a visual display with non-vanishing size is seen by an observer, every point of the display area is seen from a different direction as illustrated in fig. 1. No two spots on the display are seen from the same direction. The larger the display is and the closer the observer is to the display the more the viewing direction varies over the surface area of the display.
Colloquially, the viewing direction is often called "viewing angle". This is an ill-chosen expression which should be avoided, because the viewing direction is specified by two polar angles: the angle of inclination, θ (measured from the surface normal of the display) and the azimuth angle, Φ, measured in the plane of the display as shown in figure 3.
In fig. 2, the eyeball represents the observer that is looking at a specific spot on the display which is identical to the origin of the polar coordinate system. The green arrow is the viewing direction (i.e. direction of observation). The viewing direction is specified by the angle of inclination, θ, measured from the surface normal of the display (blue vertical arrow) while the azimuth angle, Φ, is the angle that the projection of the viewing direction onto the surface of the display makes with the x-axis (red arrow). The projection of the viewing direction is shown here as the shadow of the green arrow. The azimuth angle Φ increases counterclockwise as illustrated in figure 3.
Read more about Viewing Cone: Viewing Cone, Luminance and Contrast Versus Viewing Direction
Famous quotes containing the word viewing:
“A lover is never a completely self-reliant person viewing the world through his own eyes, but a hostage to a certain delusion. He becomes a perjurer, all his thoughts and emotions being directed with reference, not to an accurate and just appraisal of the real world but rather to the safety and exaltation of his loved one, and the madness with which he pursues her, transmogrifying his attention, blinds him like a victim.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)