Metamer mismatching in practice versus theory.

Area of Science:

• Color Science
• Computer Vision
• Perception

Background:

• Metamer mismatching describes color shifts under varying illuminants, impacting color perception.
• Theoretical models predict significant mismatching, but practical implications require empirical validation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To practically assess metamer mismatching by comparing empirical and theoretical mismatch body volumes.
• To evaluate the predictive accuracy of empirical mismatch bodies for color signal changes.

Main Methods:

• Assembled over 25 million unique reflectance spectra from diverse datasets.
• Computed empirical metamer mismatch bodies by relighting spectral data under different illuminants.
• Calculated theoretical mismatch bodies using Logvinenko et al.'s algorithm.

Main Results:

• Empirical mismatch bodies were substantially smaller than theoretical ones.
• Both empirical and theoretical body sizes varied systematically with Munsell value and chroma.
• The centroid of empirical mismatch bodies improved color-signal prediction accuracy over existing methods.

Conclusions:

• Metamer mismatching is practically less extreme than theoretically predicted.
• Munsell value and chroma influence the extent of metamer mismatching.
• Empirical mismatch body centroids offer a more accurate approach to predicting color changes under new illuminants.