Light Refraction

Light refraction is the change in direction of a ray of light when passing obliquely from one medium into another in which the light speed is different. Light refraction is character­ized by the index of refraction-a number (n) indicating the speed of light in a given medium, as either the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to that in the given medium (absolute index of refraction), or the ratio of the speed of light in a specified medium to that in the given medium (relative index of refraction), m = n1/n2. For different human skin compo­nents, refractive index (RI) in the visible/NIR wavelength range varies from a value a little bit higher than for water due to influence of some organic components ~1.35 for interstitial fluid to 1.55 for the stratum corneum.

Updated: September 12, 2015 — 3:28 am