Polish Your Image with Imaging

Gaynell Terrell, Senior News Editor/Business

Problem:
Does anyone know of a method to measure "shiny"? Recommended equipment measures reflectivity, but this is not an accurate determination of shininess. The human eye can distinguish a shiny object from one that is visually less shiny, but the test equipment indicates that they are equivalent. What is the process in the human brain that defines shininess, and what device can duplicate that result?

Joe Haake, R&D Manager
Coors Brewing Co.
Golden, Colo.
January 1999

Solution:
They don't call them Silver Bullets for nothing -- silver, shiny, ice-cold beads of condensation sparkling in the sunlight as the water drips down the side of the can.
Coors Brewing Co. of Golden, Colo., had a certain image in mind for its Coors Light label, and dull, cheerless cans weren't up to snuff. Ink and coatings vendors and beer and soft drink bottlers are very competitive when it comes to their can color processes, so marketing and technical support manager Joe Haake investigated a number of resources and also posed the question to Photonics Spectra readers in January 1999: How do you measure shine?…