Illumination and acceleration in the visualization of special relativity: a comment on fast rendering of relativistic objects

We address the issue of illumination and acceleration in special relativist ic visualization. Betts (J. Visual. Comput. Animat. 1998; 9:17-31) presents an incorrect derivation of the transformation of the Rayleigh-Jeans radiat ion, which we compare to the correct transformation of radiance in the fram ework of special relativity. His rendering algorithm can be modified to cor rectly account for the relativistic effects on illumination. Furthermore, w e show how acceleration can be included in special relativistic visualizati on by calculating the trajectory of accelerating objects, which is a prereq uisite for a physically based camera model. Therefore interaction and anima tion in special relativistic visualization are possible. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.