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How much does illuminant color affect unattributed colors?

L E Arend1

  • 1Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114.

Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, Image Science, and Vision
|October 1, 1993
PubMed
Summary
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Color appearance is not invariant to changes in illumination, even after adaptation. This study investigated how light from surfaces appears under different lighting conditions, finding that perceived color shifts significantly.

Area of Science:

  • Color Science
  • Visual Perception
  • Psychophysics

Background:

  • The constancy of perceived surface color under varying illumination is a long-standing problem in color science.
  • Previous attempts to measure illumination invariance have been hampered by challenges in creating appropriate comparison stimuli.
  • The subjective nature of color perception requires robust methodologies to assess objective changes in appearance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether the light emitted from a surface maintains a consistent appearance across different illuminations after observer adaptation.
  • To address the measurement and evaluation problems in determining theoretical chromaticity shifts for illumination invariance.
  • To compare experimental data with theoretical models of color constancy.

Main Methods:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Observers adapted to different color temperatures of light (4000, 6500, and 10,000 K) using a mental standard.
  • A cathode-ray tube (CRT) display was used to generate unique hues at constant saturation, memorized during training.
  • A novel technique involving Cohen's basis vectors was employed to derive theoretical surface reflectances and their chromaticities under varying illuminants.

Main Results:

  • The study found that adaptive shifts in color appearance were insufficient to achieve illumination invariance, even within a limited range of daylight conditions.
  • The perceived light from surfaces changed even after full adaptation to new illuminations.
  • Theoretical surfaces designed to have unique hues under one illuminant did not maintain that appearance under others.

Conclusions:

  • The appearance of light from surfaces is not invariant to changes in illumination, challenging the notion of stable surface color perception.
  • This finding suggests that human color constancy mechanisms may be less effective than previously assumed, particularly for the light itself rather than surface reflectance.
  • The results prompt a re-evaluation of the fundamental basis for the human perception of color as a stable property of objects.