Color: An Introduction to Practice and Principles, 3rd Edition

7

Calculating Color

The idea of calculating taste or smell may be considered far-fetched but calculation of color (or at least some aspects of it) is taking place every day. There are several reasons making this possible, among them are the following: (1) color stimuli from uniform fields can be physically measured with good accuracy; (2) the fact that there are only three relatively well-defined types of light sensors, the cones, responsible for providing input to our color vision system, seems to restrict the problem to three dimensions, something humans can comprehend without much difficulty; and (3) the high capabilities and low cost of computing. The realities faced by a color vision model attempting to predict anything related to perceptual judgments of color are quite complex, however, as has been mentioned and as builders of such models know. The reason is that the human color vision system has developed for the purpose of solving problems critical for our survival by modifying the signals existing at the exit of the cones in many different ways, depending on many factors. The final results may be of a Bayesian statistical nature. Any model short of duplicating in a robotic fashion the complete color vision system will be found limited and inadequate in specific circumstances. And then there remains the issue of interobserver variability and its causes and imports.

Mathematical ...