Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/y54jofv0em
A Framework for Computer Simulation of Color Constancy Experiments
Sven Lončarić
; Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Donik Vršnak
orcid.org/0000-0002-5866-4905
; Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing Department of Energy and Power Systems, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Ilija Domislović
; Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing Department of Energy and Power Systems, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Marko Subašić
orcid.org/0000-0002-4321-4557
; Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing Department of Energy and Power Systems, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Color constancy is an important property of the human visual system (HVS), as it allows us to discern the colors of objects independent of the colors of the light that illuminates them. Experimental color constancy has been a long-studied topic in the field of human perception. With the advent of modern technology and an increase in computing power, as well as more accurate display technology, an opportunity to computationally simulate color constancy experiments, rather than relying on physical objects such as paper, occurred. Many experiments, a lot of which using simulated stimuli, have been conducted on the properties of the human visual system regarding color constancy. However, many experiments required the use of specialized equipment or special observation conditions. In this work, we propose a new framework for computer simulation of color-related HVS experiments aimed at the research of color constancy HVS properties. The proposed framework consists of the software to simulate physical properties of illuminants and objects, the software for easy creation of experiments, and a set of best practices for computer monitor calibration. The advantages of the framework compared to the use of physical objects are low computational power, the ability to generate unlimited numbers of test images, the ability to conduct experiments remotely, more flexibility for time-limited test image presentation, and lower cost. The framework has been tested in two simulated experiments. The first experiment tests the sensitivity of the HVS to the changes in the color of the illumination using simulated Mondrian patterns. The second experiment tests the limits of the color constancy properties of the HVS in highly chromatic conditions using color matches on simulated patterns. In the first experiment, 1,800 color pattern comparisons have been made, resulting in a color sensitivity of 2.46°, which is comparable to the range of 2°- 3° measured in other published work. In the second experiment, a total number of 3,000 color pattern matches have been conducted, which resulted in 54% of correct matches. The experimental validation shows that the experiments conducted using the proposed color-testing framework are comparable to experiments conducted using physical objects, such as colored papers. Therefore, we conclude that the proposed framework can be used for other color-related experiments requiring human subject evalu- ation of various color patterns aimed at the HVS color property research.
Keywords
color constancy; human visual system; simulated experi- ments; color matching
Hrčak ID:
307603
URI
Publication date:
7.9.2023.
Visits: 708 *