Calibrating Raspberry Pi v2.1 Camera as an Absolute Luminance Meter for Smart Luminaire System Sensing Applications

Abstract

This article presents the conception and realization of a self-contained, absolute luminance level measurement device using a Raspberry  Pi v2.1 camera system and single-board pocket size Raspberry Pi computer for a smart luminaire system sensing applications. The work  presents Raspberry Pi v2.1 camera module footage in raw Bayer data formats, radiometric characterizations, raw Red, Green, Blue (RGB)  to absolute luminance meter calibration and validation results. The developed absolute luminance meter is very simple, efficient,  compact and suitable for absolute luminance level sensing measurement. Results obtained from the luminance meter calibration  validation experiments showed that the proposed absolute luminance meter has the capability of measuring wide range of absolute luminance levels quickly with an average deviation of less than 2 cd/m² from actual measurements or with 97.48 % accuracy.