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Updated: Dec 9, 2025

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
Published on: April 24, 2017
Geometry of color perception. Part 2: perceived colors from real quantum states and Hering's rebit
1Laboratoire MIA, La Rochelle Université, Avenue Albert Einstein, BP 33060, 17031, La Rochelle, France. michel.berthier@univ-lr.fr.
Abstract:
Inspired by the pioneer work of H.L. Resnikoff, which is described in full detail in the first part of this two-part paper, we give a quantum description of the space [Formula: see text] of perceived colors. We show that [Formula: see text] is the effect space of a rebit, a real quantum qubit, whose state space is isometric to Klein's hyperbolic disk. This chromatic state space of perceived colors can be represented as a Bloch disk of real dimension 2 that coincides with Hering's disk given by the color opponency mechanism. Attributes of perceived colors, hue and saturation, are defined in terms of Von Neumann entropy.
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