Angular embedding: From jarring intensity differences to perceived luminance

Our goal is to turn an intensity image into its perceived luminance without parsing it into depths, surfaces, or scene illuminations. We start with jarring intensity differences at two scales mixed according to edges, identified by a pixel-centric edge detector. We propose angular embedding as a more robust, efficient, and versatile alternative to LS, LLE, and NCUTS for obtaining a global brightness ordering from local differences. Our model explains a variety of brightness illusions with a single algorithm. Brightness of a pixel can be understood locally as its intensity deviating in the gradient direction and globally as finding its rank relative to others, particularly the lightest and darkest ones.