Ronnier Luo

Gloss as an aspect of the measurement of appearance

The perception and measurement of gloss is just one part of the concept of appearance measurement. We describe the comparison between data derived by 20 observers who each scaled the perceived gloss of a set of 84 neutral and colored test samples and measurements of those samples made using a glossmeter and a sphere-based spectrophotometer. With a glossmeter, the relationship between the visual-scaled data and the measured gloss values could be described by a three-part linear fit or, with a higher correlation, a cubic function. For the sphere-based spectrophotometer, the difference in the luminance factor, deltaY, between specular-included and specular-excluded measurements, was found to give a better linear correlation with the observer-scaled data. The color of the samples did not appear to significantly change the perceived gloss of the surface.

CRI2012: A proposal for updating the CIE colour rendering index

The CIE colour rendering index (CRI) has been criticized for its poor correlation with the visual colour rendering of many spiked or narrowband sources, its outdated colour space and chromatic adaptation transform and the use of a small number of non-optimal reflectance samples that have enabled lamp manufacturers to tune the spectrum of a light source to yield, in some cases, inappropriately high general CRI values. The CRI2012 metric proposed in this paper addresses these criticisms by combining the most state of the art colorimetric colour difference model, i.e. CAM02-UCS, with a mathematical reflectance set that exhibits a highly uniform spectral sensitivity. A set of 210 real reflectance samples has also been selected to provide additional information on the expected colour shifts when changing illumination.

Toward a Replacement of the CIE Color Rendering Index for White Light Sources

ABSTRACT The CIE color rendering (fidelity) index (CRI) has remained unchanged for over four decades. Most, if not all, of its components could be updated to more state-of-the-art methods. One of the most critical components of any color rendering (fidelity) metric is the test sample selection. This article therefore addresses the importance of uniform sampling of wavelength space to avoid selective optimization—that is, taking advantage of the unequal contributions of different wavelength regions to the general color rendering score—of light source spectral power distributions. It summarizes the development of a mathematical sample set with undistorted spectral sensitivity, the HL17 set. The set is used in a recently proposed update, the CRI2012 general color rendering index. To assess the impact of the spectrally uniform sample set on color fidelity scores, the CRI2012 index values for each of a set of 139 lamps were compared with those of the CIE CRI. In addition, the impact of updating the other components was investigated. A mean and maximum absolute difference of respectively 5.9 and 21.8 index units were found between the CRI2012 and CIE CRI, although the largest part—respectively 4.03 and 19.7 index units—was shown to be the result of updating the color difference engine and the switch to the CIE 10° observer. The analysis also indicated possible past spectral selective optimization of some warm-white tri-band fluorescent sources for high luminous efficacy of radiation (LER) and (just) sufficient CIE Ra values by taking advantage of the spectral nonuniformity of the CIE reflectance set. Adopting a spectrally uniform sample set in a color rendering metric therefore has important practical implications when designing light source spectra. Finally, possible updates and further improvements of the CRI2012 are briefly mentioned.

Assessing glare. Part 1: Comparing uniform and non-uniform LED luminaires

This study investigated the discomfort glare caused by LED luminaires. It included three different LED luminaire structures, under two background luminances, seen at two different angles above the line of sight. Observers scaled glare using a seven-category scale. The results showed that a darker background or a smaller angle led to more discomfort glare and a non-uniform luminaire produced more glare than a uniform one. Furthermore, Unified Glare Rating was tested using the data. It performed reasonably well, but there is still room to improve the predictions for non-uniform LED luminaires.

Assessing glare, Part 3: Glare sources having different colours

This paper describes an experiment for assessing the discomfort glare caused by light emitting diodes (LEDs) having different colours. The results showed that coloured LEDs induce more discomfort glare than a white LED. On comparing different coloured LEDs, blue ones gave the highest glare perception, especially for those having shorter peak wavelengths. Different earlier proposed luminous efficiency functions for discomfort glare were applied to re-define luminance. This led to modified unified glare ratings, which achieved very accurate predictions of the visual results. A modified brightness based on a colour appearance model for unrelated lights was used to predict glare and also performed very well.

Modelling memory colour region for preference colour reproduction

Colour preference adjustment is an essential step for colour image enhancement and perceptual gamut mapping. In colour reproduction for pictorial images, properly shifting colours away from their colorimetric originals may produce more preferred colour reproduction result. Memory colours, as a portion of the colour regions for colour preference adjustment, are especially important for preference colour reproduction. Identifying memory colours or modelling the memory colour region is a basic step to study preferred memory colour enhancement. In this study, we first created gamut for each memory colour region represented as a convex hull, and then used the convex hull to guide mathematical modelling to formulate the colour region for colour enhancement.

A new method for skin color enhancement

Skin tone is the most important color category in memory colors. Reproducing it pleasingly is an important factor in photographic color reproduction. Moving skin colors toward their preferred skin color center improves the skin color preference on photographic color reproduction. Two key factors to successfully enhance skin colors are: a method to detect original skin colors effectively even if they are shifted far away from the regular skin color region, and a method to morph skin colors toward a preferred skin color region properly without introducing artifacts. A method for skin color enhancement presented by the authors in the same conference last year applies a static skin color model for skin color detection, which may miss to detect skin colors that are far away from regular skin tones. In this paper, a new method using the combination of face detection and statistical skin color modeling is proposed to effectively detect skin pixels and to enhance skin colors more effectively.

Preferred skin color enhancement for photographic color reproduction

Skin tones are the most important colors among the memory color category. Reproducing skin colors pleasingly is an important factor in photographic color reproduction. Moving skin colors toward their preferred skin color center improves the color preference of skin color reproduction. Several methods to morph skin colors to a smaller preferred skin color region has been reported in the past. In this paper, a new approach is proposed to further improve the result of skin color enhancement. An ellipsoid skin color model is applied to compute skin color probabilities for skin color detection and to determine a weight for skin color adjustment. Preferred skin color centers determined through psychophysical experiments were applied for color adjustment. Preferred skin color centers for dark, medium, and light skin colors are applied to adjust skin colors differently. Skin colors are morphed toward their preferred color centers. A special processing is applied to avoid contrast loss in highlight. A 3-D interpolation method is applied to fix a potential contouring problem and to improve color processing efficiency. An psychophysical experiment validates that the method of preferred skin color enhancement effectively identifies skin colors, improves the skin color preference, and does not objectionably affect preferred skin colors in original images.

Prototypical colors of skin, green plant, and blue sky

Colors of skin, green plant, and blue sky of digital photographic images were studied for modeling and detection of these three important memory color regions. The color modeling of these three regions in CIELAB and CAM02-UCS was presented, and the properties of these three color groups were investigated.