> while they are sampled at a specific location, these are not actual values, as this would require ideal sensor technology that will probably never be achievedwhile they are sampled at a specific location, these are not actual values, as this would require ideal sensor technology that will probably never be achieved
Indeed; hence why they're a useful abstraction
> So we have to account for all kinds of diffusion, reflection, sensor surfaces, shapes of light channels, fall-off thereof, etc – and may wonder at what shape and to what extent to model them best.
Whilst 'shapes' can give particularly simple models (like nearest-neighbour voronoi cells), that's still quite a limiting assumption. For example, models which take multiple neighbours into account, like bicubic interpolation (and pretty much everything except pixel-art editors), don't fit the concept of "shape" very well. In particular, the influence/extent of the pixels "overlap", which requires a separate notion of composition/interaction; and some areas may even have negative influence!
> In particular, the influence/extent of the pixels "overlap", which requires a separate notion of composition/interaction; and some areas may even have negative influence!
Indeed! Compare the edit. (Sorry for this other overlap in the temporal domain.)
Indeed; hence why they're a useful abstraction
> So we have to account for all kinds of diffusion, reflection, sensor surfaces, shapes of light channels, fall-off thereof, etc – and may wonder at what shape and to what extent to model them best.
Whilst 'shapes' can give particularly simple models (like nearest-neighbour voronoi cells), that's still quite a limiting assumption. For example, models which take multiple neighbours into account, like bicubic interpolation (and pretty much everything except pixel-art editors), don't fit the concept of "shape" very well. In particular, the influence/extent of the pixels "overlap", which requires a separate notion of composition/interaction; and some areas may even have negative influence!