Color Appearance Explained,Predicted and Confirmed by the Concept of Recognized Visual Space of Illumination

Ten years have passed since we proposed a new concept called recognized visual space of illumination (RVSI). The central idea of the concept assumes that our brain first recognizes how a space is illuminated and then judges colors of anything seen in the space in relation to the RVSI constructed for the space. In another expression we say that the space is recognized first and the color perception next. In this paper some of our experiments that proved the appropriateness of the concept will be introduced. When a white paper was seen through a colored filter we could perceive the paper as white at the same instant we recognized a space through and beyond the filter. When an achromatic patch independent from the room illumination was observed under colored illumination its appearance immediately changed to that roughly opponent to the illumination color. When two gray patches of the same lightness were drawn in a picture of a white grating on a black background on a way that one appeared to locate on this side of the grating and the other in the other side, the former appeared brighter. These all confirmed the predictions based on the RVSI concept.     

Color Appearance of a Patch Explained by RVSI for the Conditions of Various Colors of Room Illumination and of Various Luminance Levels of the Patch

Whenever we enter a space illuminated differently from a previous space whether in color or in illuminance, we can quickly adapt to the new atmosphere and can again perceive white for the originally white object; this is known as color constancy. This phenomenon is explained by rotation of the recognition axis of the recognized visual space of illumination (RVSI) toward the illumination color. The explanation then predicts that the color appearance of a test patch changes radically toward the opposite direction from the color of illumination when the physical property of the test patch is kept unchanged at a neutral white. This prediction was confirmed by Experiment 1, where eight different colors of illumination were employed. The test patch appeared very vivid in color and shifted toward the opposite direction from the color of the illumination. In RVSI theory the light source color mode is explained by the release of the test patch from the restriction of RVSI. The release can be achieved by increasing the luminance of the test patch and the color appearance of the patch should then return to its own color as it is no longer controlled by RVSI. In Experiment 2 these predictions were investigated by increasing the luminance of the test patch to a much higher level than that of the objects in the lit room fixed at an illuminance of about 1001x. The color appearance of the test patch indeed became the light source color and returned to the original neutral white. Emphasis was given in the course of the experiments that the subjects were observing the test patch presented in a real 3D space where the subjects also stayed inside so that they could properly construct RVSI for the space.     

Color Appearance Determined by Recognition of Space

The color appearance was measured for a test patch which was placed in a test room illuminated by daylight lamps and was looked at from a subject room illuminated by one of four colored illuminations, red, yellow, green and blue, through windows of various sizes. When the window was small so that only the test patch was seen within the window the color of the test patch appeared almost opponent to the illumination color, but as soon as something was seen within the window of a larger size the color returned to the original color of the test patch. To recognize the test room as a space was essential to perceive the real color of the test patch. The results were explained by the concept of the recognized visual space of illumination.     

Improvement in appearance of colors for elderly persons using lightness transform

The color of an object appears to be different for elderly and young persons. This is because human visual features vary with on age. In general, the spectral transmittance of the crystalline lens of an elderly person is lower than that of a young person. The low spectral transmittance decreases the brightness of the visual field. This phenomenon affects the color appearance of an image in human visual perception. In this paper, a lightness transform method is proposed to improve the color appearance of images for elderly persons. In the proposed method, colors that are difficult for an elderly person to see are transformed into colors that are easy to see by adding lightness contrast. The performance of the proposed method is confirmed in experiments using digital images.     

用伪同色光谱图像检测色觉正常观察者的锥细胞光谱响应

为了能够快速、准确的检测色觉正常观察者的辨色差异，从而对其红、绿、蓝三通道的锥细胞光谱响应进行研究，设计并制作了由背景层（或和明度层）以及数字层组成的伪同色光谱图像，其中背景层和数字层具有不同的光谱反射曲线，经过照明光源以及人眼锥细胞光谱响应的共同作用，使色觉正常的观察者产生不同的颜色感知差异。实验首先基于不同光谱原色的输出设备，在不同的照明光源下，制作出能够放大观察者差异的近同色异谱色样对。要求用不同颜色匹配函数计算近同色异谱色样对的CIEDE2000色差值，有的色差在人眼辨色阈值之内，有的色差人眼可明显识别。通过优化计算，将放大观察者色觉差异的近同色异谱色样对应用于伪同色光谱图像的数字层和背景层，并利用Epson Stylus Pro7908喷墨打印机和OKI C9600激光打印机分别输出伪同色光谱图像的背景层和数字层。同时组织了72名色觉正常的观察者（包含55名18～25岁的年轻观察者和17名62～74岁的老年观察者）分别在D65和LED-5000K两种光源下，对伪同色光谱图像进行识读检验。识读结果表明，伪同色光谱图像可以较为准确的判定年轻和老年观察者的视网膜锥细胞光谱响应是否老化。同种照明光源下，年轻观察者可以识读出数字的伪同色光谱图像（②/④）老年观察者不能识读，老年观察者可以识读的伪同色光谱图像（①/③）大多年轻观察者不能识读，且55名年轻观察者中有4名观察者的目视结果与老年人相同。另外，年轻观察者的锥细胞光谱响应与CIE1964和CIE2006（age=25 y）颜色匹配函数较为一致，而老年观察者的锥细胞光谱响应与CIE1931和CIE2006（age=75 y）颜色匹配函数更为一致。对比颜色匹配函数的分布，发现老年观察者的锥细胞光谱响应向长波段偏移，同时由于屈光系统光学密度增加导致其锥细胞光谱响应有所降低。     

Color Zone Map in Peripheral Vision at Various Illuminance Levels

We measured the entire region of mesopic and photopic vision to determine the color zone covering the visual field with unique red, yellow, green, and blue hue components. Eight kinds of test stimuli in the natural color system (NCS) color notation system were used. These stimuli were presented at horizontal and vertical meridians, and at meridians inclined at 45° angles. The illuminance level was set at six levels: 0.01 lx-1000 lx. The evaluation method measured chromatic, white, and black components as well as the hue component of the stimuli. Results show that the color zone of the retina extended further into the periphery with increasing illuminance; the response of opponent colors y-b was shown to be greater than that of the opponent colors r-g.     

Brightness Perception of Light Source Colors in Dense Fog

The characteristics of our color vision are affected by various visual environments. In this experiment, we examined how colored lights look in dense fog. We used 12 kinds of colored light as a test stimulus. At first, in the absence of fog, subjects matched brightness of all the test stimuli with a reference white light adjusted to 0.1 cd/m² or 0.5 cd/m² in luminance, respectively. They then evaluated the apparent brightness of the test stimuli in dense fog with magnitude estimation of 10 grades. In the presence of fog, test stimuli containing a yellow component were given the highest point value of brightness, while test stimuli containing a blue component were given the lowest point value of brightness in fog. We are confident that in a visual environment involving fog, these results will be extremely helpful and practical.     

The Brain Adaptation to the Color of Illumination and not the Retinal Adaptation to the Color of Objects that Determines the Color Appearance of an Object in the Space

Color appearance was measured for a test patch which was placed in a test room illuminated by the daylight type of illumination and was looked at from the subject room illuminated by one of the four colored illuminations, red, yellow, green, and blue, through a window of three different sizes. When the window was the smallest so that only the test patch was seen within the window the color of the test patch appeared almost opponent to the illumination color, but as soon as something is seen within the window of larger size the color returned to the original color of the test patch to indicate the color constancy. To recognize the test room as a space was essential to perceive the real color of the test patch. This returning to the original colors was not influenced by green color of objects densely placed in the test room or by red color of objects again densely placed in the test room. The results imply that the color appearance of the test patch is not determined by the retinal chromatic adaptation, but by the brain adaptation to color of the illumination in the space.     

Computerized Simulation and Chromatic Adaptation Experiments Based on a Model of Aged Human Lens

Color appearance seen by old people does not significantly differ from that seen by young subjects even though their ocular lens has become more yellow with age. We calculated the age-related change of lights reflected from Munsell color chips onto the retina, and derived results that show that the chromaticity values of all the color chips shifted to the yellow region of the xy-chromaticity diagram. However, a replot on the CIELAB diagram and the estimation by means of the von Kries adaptation model suggests that old people may compensate their color vision using a general chromatic adaptation process. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two experiments: a chromatic adaptation experiment and a color matching experiment to simulate D65-lights as seen by older people but using young subjects. The results indicate that chromatic adaptation does not provide a complete explanation for color compensation by older people, suggesting that an age-related change of the yellow-blue opponent color mechanism may contribute to this compensation.     

Limit of the Surface-Color Mode Perception under Non-Uniform Illuminations

A series of experiments were conducted to find the effects of non-uniform illumination on the surface-color mode perception. Two patterns of the illumination, one-sided illumination and a spotlight, were simulated. Observers adjusted the luminance of the test stimulus so that it just started to appear partially as an aperture-color mode. We found that the upper-limit luminance was significantly lower for all test colors when the directions of the gradient between the test stimulus and the surrounds did not match. On the other hand, in the spotlight conditions the upper-limit luminances changed only when it was contained in the spotlighted area. Our results suggest that the brightest stimulus in the scene does not work as a cue, and that the visual system takes the influence of illumination into account in order to set a criterion for the judgment for the color appearance of the mode.     

Color Modification of Pictures Requiring Same Color Impression as Real Scene

Color constancy is an important feature of the human visual system. Our visual system adapts almost instantly to new illumination and we can perceive the color of objects in a new space correctly whatever color the illumination may be. This feature is not solely that of a commercially available camera. The difference between the human visual system and a camera raises a problem in our observation of pictures. We cannot see the exact color that a photographer intended to show us through a picture. Some color modification must be made to the picture to resolve this. In the present paper, the degree of modification was determined for various color combinations of illumination for taking a picture, FL_L and observing the picture, FL_o. An entire experiment was carried out in an actual room based on the belief that color appearance of objects is determined in relation to the recognized visual space of illumination (RVSI). A subject observed the color of a room lit by FL_L and pictures of the room lit by various colors of FL_L were taken. The pictures were displayed in another room lit by FL_o and the subject chose the picture that gave him/her the same color impression as the room of FL_L. In the case of picture slide, the color of the picture must be modified as if it were taken with the illumination inbetween the color of FL_L and FL_o. In the case of picture print, a similar modification was needed for reddish FL_L and white FL_O, but it was not needed for white FL_L and reddish FL_o.     

Color Constancy in a Photograph Perceived as a Three-Dimensional Space

It is known that color constancy does not hold in a photograph. This could be because the photograph is recognized as a two-dimensional paper. Based on the concept of the recognized visual space of illumination (RVSI), it is predicted that color constancy holds in the photograph if it is perceived as a 3-D scene. We examined whether the color constancy held under a special viewing condition. A photograph of a room under incandescent illumination was shown under daylight illumination. We tested the neutral color perception of a stimulus on the photograph both with and without a dimension-up viewing box showing the photograph alone monocularly. The results showed good color constancy when a subject observed the photograph with the viewing box. It was also shown that the degree of color constancy decreased for a jumbled photograph without 3-D information. Our results suggest that the recognition of a space and illumination are important in color perception.     

基于Land实验的可见红外伪彩色图像融合方法

由Land在研究人类视觉颜色恒定性现象时从所做的某个实验出发,通过对该实验中所用红、绿色滤波片的理想化假设以及光源的等能分布假设,并建立红外图像与红色透明片、可见光图像与绿色透明片的对应关系,得到Land实验启发下的新的伪彩色融合算法。通过与Toet伪彩色融合算法的结果比较,说明了该方法的有效性。进而借鉴Toet算法中强调图像特有成分的思想,使本算法输出更丰富、更逼近真实景物的色彩。     

用阴极射线管显示器研究辨色阈值Ⅰ:实验数据及人眼颜色视觉特性分析

为了研究人眼在辨色阈值水平上的颜色视觉特性,在阴极射线管(CRT)显示器上显示颜色刺激,采用交叉阶梯法进行心理物理实验,在CIE1976a*-b*平面上分别测得3名色觉正常的观察者在5个CIE基本颜色中心区域的辨色阈值。采用性能因子PF/3讨论观察者的测试精度,并以色度椭圆表示辨色阈值实验结果。通过对实验数据的详细处理和分析表明,在等明度的a*-b*平面上各色区及各颜色方向上人眼的辨色特性是各向异性的,即CIE1976a*-b*平面为非视觉均匀;人眼在5个CIE基本颜色中心区域上红-绿方向的视觉色差尺度均小于黄-蓝方向。本文的实验结果可为均匀颜色空间及其色差公式的改进和发展提供原始数据和参考依据。     

基于光源相对光谱功率分布的颜色真值获取方法

嫦娥三号全景相机具有彩色成像模式,在发射前需先进行彩色定标,样本真值的获取是彩色定标的前提。传统方法获取的颜色真值在色差值和视觉感知上都与实际值存在明显的偏差。若直接采用该颜色值作为真值进行彩色定标,影响定标后的色差大小和定标校正后颜色的人眼视觉感知效果。为探索更好的颜色真值获取方法,利用实验室内测得的D65定标光源的相对光谱功率分布,重新定义了转换矩阵中的白点坐标,然后基于CIE颜色计算公式,根据格拉斯曼颜色混合定律,对XYZ与sRGB颜色空间之间的转换矩阵进行了修正,提高了样本真值获取的准确度。另外利用修正后的转换矩阵对sRGB空间的三刺激值曲线进行了重新计算,对标准转换值偏离实际值的原因进行了分析。通过地面试验验证,相对于传统样本真值获取方法,利用该真值获取方法定标后A,B两相机的色差值分别降低了0.8和0.73;定标矩阵校正在轨图像时,色差分别降低了26.50%和34.47%,且校正后的颜色与人眼的视觉感知效果更接近。     

Failure of color constancy for high luminance of a test patch that appears unnatural as an object in a space

The theory of the recognized visual space of illumination (RVSI) is that the color appearance of objects in a space is determined in relation to its recognition axis RX whose direction is determined by the brain action to adapt to the illumination in the space. Thus the color constancy holds. RX is applicable to objects in the space but not to an object or a portion that does not belong in the space in terms of illumination, that is to say, the luminance of which is too high based on the illumination for that space. In that case the color appearance would be determined in relation to the fundamental axis FX and the color constancy would not hold. In the present paper the chromaticity points were measured for a test patch that appeared achromatic for various luminance of the patch. The points were close to the color of illumination to indicate the color constancy when the luminance was low enough to assure its appearance as the object color, but they departed from the color of illumination and approached the colorimetrically achromatic color. The color constancy gradually failed for the test patch with the high luminance when the color mode became an unnatural object color and then a light color.     

Measurement of Color Constancy by Color Memory Matching

Degree of color constancy was measured when color memory was involved in color comparison judgment. We used the Optical Society of America (OSA) Uniform Color Scales as stimulus color samples, and chose 20 color samples as test stimuli. Four illuminants of 1700, 3000, 6500, and 30, 000 K were tested. The observer, completely adapted to a test illuminant, saw a test color sample and stored its color in his memory. After being readapted to the reference white (6500 K), he started selecting a color sample from among the 424 OSA samples which matched the test sample in his memory. We employed a memory matching method called cascade color matching, in which the number of selected color-samples was gradually reduced in four stages. In the final stage, the observer selected a color sample. The results show that, for most test colors, the distributions of selected colors in stages 1 to 4 were similar among all illuminants, and that the u’v’ chromaticity distance between a test color under 6500 K and its matched color was quite short. These indicate that good color constancy was retained in memory color comparison.     

多狭缝空间滤波假彩色编码

利用空间滤波合成狭缝彩虹全息技术对二维透射物进行假彩色编码,当参考光以不同的方向传播时,记录二维透射物的不同空间频谱所对应的物像,全息图在白光再现时将透镜平移就呈现不同颜色全息效果图。     

基于均匀颜色知觉空间的多光谱图像彩色合成

本文在分析现有多光谱图像彩色合成方法的基础上，提出了基于均匀颜色知觉空间的ＨＬＣ合成法，讨论了单谱段图像映射、分量图像合成、色域变换以及合成图像的色差预测和评估、彩色变换和逆变换，分析了影响合成图像视觉效果的因素。应用于伪装目标的识别获得了比ＲＧＢ、ＹＭＣ、ＩＨＳ等合成法更好的效果     

中性色温下两基色、三基色荧光粉转换白光LED的光谱优化

针对中性色温4 870 K,考虑斯托克斯损失,研究了两基色、三基色的白光LED的光谱优化。结果表明:InGaN/GaN基蓝光LED激发YAG荧光粉合成的白光光视效能可高达483.5 lm/W,但显色性较差,计算的斯托克斯效率为83.9%。加入窄带红色荧光粉或红光LED,优化后的光视效能降低为343 lm/W,但显色指数升至94.7,同时计算得到该LED的斯托克斯效率为84.4%。对该优化的三基色LED光谱进行可调色温白光的特性分析,发现较高色温 (＞4 000 K)对应的显色指数普遍高于低色温(＜4 000 K)的显色指数。