Optical characteristic measuring apparatus

An optical characteristic measuring apparatus comprising:

• an integrating sphere having an inner surface defining an inside space and a sample aperture where a sample to be measured is placed;
• a light measuring system which receives light reflected from the sample to produce measurement data in accordance with an intensity of received light;
• a first illuminating system which diffusely illuminates the sample by projecting light to a specified region of the inner surface of the integrating sphere;
• a second illuminating system which projects light on the sample in such an angle that the light specularly reflected by the sample is directed to the light measuring system;
• a controller which controls the first and second illuminating systems to operate in a specified sequence;
• a storage unit which stores weighting factors in connection with inclusion and exclusion of specular component in the reflection light from the sample;
• and
• a calculator which calculates an optical characteristic of the sample based on the measurement data and the weighting factors wherein the calculator includes a weighting factor calculating portion for calculating weighting factors based on measurement data for a plurality of reference samples having predetermined optical characteristics which are different from each other.

An optical characteristic measuring apparatus comprising:

• an integrating sphere having an inner surface defining an inside space and a sample aperture where a sample to be measured is placed;
• a light measuring system which receives light reflected from the sample to produce measurement data in accordance with an intensity of received light;
• a first illuminating system which supplies illumination light into the inside space of the integrating sphere so that the light measuring system substantially receives diffuse reflection light from the sample;
• a second illuminating system which supplies illumination light having a directivity into the inside space of the integrating sphere so that the light measuring system substantially receives specular reflection light from the sample;
• and
• a calculator which calculates a first optical characteristic of the sample including a specular component and a second optical characteristic of the sample excluding a specular component based on a first measurement data obtained when the first illuminating system is activated and a second measurement data obtained when the second illuminating system is activated.