A phenomenological approach to integrating Gaussian beam properties and speckle into a physically-based renderer

Coherent light exhibits properties that cannot be modeled by geometrical optics. Those properties include the limited focusability of light beams and the formation of speckle patterns when coherent light is scattered or reflected. We use existing physical models for these phenomena to mimic the behavior of Gaussian beams and the statistical properties of speckle patterns without performing a wave-optics simulation. These models have been integrated into a physically-based renderer with the intention of synthesizing sensor data for an optical inspection setup which uses a laser light source. This requires only local changes to the renderer and can also be used for real-time rendering.