The colors of natural scenes benefit dichromats.

Dichromacy impairs color vision and impoverishes the discrimination of surface colors in natural scenes. Computational estimates based on hyperspectral imaging data from natural scenes suggest that dichromats can discriminate only about 10% of the colors discriminated by normal trichromats. These estimates, however, assume that the colors are equally frequent. Yet, pairs of colors confused by dichromats may be rare and thus have small impact on overall perceived chromatic diversity. This study estimated, empirically, how much dichromats are disadvantaged in discriminating surface colors drawn from natural scenes. The stimulus for the experiment was a scene made of real three-dimensional objects painted with matte white paint and illuminated by a spectrally tunable light source. In each trial the observers saw the scene illuminated by two spectra in two successive time intervals and had to indicate whether the colors perceived in the objects in the two intervals were the same or different. The spectra were drawn randomly from hyperspectral data of natural scenes and therefore represented natural spectral statistics. Four normal trichromats and four dichromats carried out the experiment. It was found that the number of pairs that could be discriminated by dichromats was almost 70% of those discriminated by normal trichromats, a proportion much higher than anticipated from estimates of discernible colors. Moreover, data from model simulations show that normal trichromats and dichromats use lightness differences for discrimination in about 40% and 50% of the discriminable pairs, respectively. Together these results suggest that the color distributions of natural scenes benefit the color vision of dichromats.

Assessing the effects of dynamic luminance contrast noise masking on a color discrimination task.

The aim of this work was to assess the influence of dynamic luminance contrast noise masking (LCNM) on color discrimination for color normal and anomalous trichromats. The stimulus was a colored target on a background presented on a calibrated CRT display. In the static LCNM condition, the background and target consisted of packed circles with variable size and static random luminance. In the dynamic LCNM condition, a 10 Hz square luminance signal was added to each circle. The phase of this signal was randomized across circles. Discrimination thresholds were estimated along 20 hue directions concurrent at the color of the background. Six observers with normal color vision, six deuteranomalous observers, and three protanomalous observers performed the test in both conditions. With dynamic LCNM, thresholds were significantly lower for anomalous observers but not for normal observers, suggesting a facilitation effect of the masking for anomalous trichromats.

Effect of scene dimensionality on colour constancy with real three-dimensional scenes and objects.

The effect of scene dimensionality on colour constancy was tested with real scenes and objects. Observers viewed a three-dimensional (3-D) scene, or its two-dimensional (2-D) planar projection, through a large beam-splitter that projected the virtual image of a real test object (a cube or its 2-D projection) so that it appeared part of the scene. Test object and scene could be illuminated independently with high chromatic precision. In each trial, the illuminance of the scene changed abruptly from 25000 K to 6700 K and the illuminant of the test object changed either consistently or inconsistently with it by a variable quantifiable amount. Observers had to decide whether the test object underwent a change in its materials. The extent of constancy obtained in the experiment was not influenced by scene dimensionality and varied significantly with the colour of the test object. These results suggest that color constancy in the conditions tested here may be determined by local spectral quantities.

Perception of illuminant colour changes across real scenes.

In a complex natural scene the colour and intensity of the illumination may vary considerably across the scene. Changes in intensity can easily be detected but the same does not seem to be true of colour changes. We investigated the extent to which chromatic changes of the illuminant are detected and the relation of detection performance with colour constancy and scene interpretation. The stimuli were complex real 3-D scenes rendered with spatial colour gradients of which the extremes had correlated colour temperatures within the range 25000 K-3300 K. Observers' sensitivity to these spatial changes of the illuminant was found to be low and critically dependent on scene composition. Also, even in extreme conditions where colour constancy is known to fail, changes in the color of the illuminant across the scenes could not be perceived. These results suggest that insensitivity to spatial changes of the colour of the illuminant is a strong phenomenon and that it holds regardless of colour constancy.

Effect of scene complexity on colour constancy with real three-dimensional scenes and objects.

The effect of scene complexity on colour constancy was tested with a novel technique in which a virtual image of a real 3-D test object was projected into a real 3-D scene. Observers made discriminations between illuminant and material changes in simple and complex scenes. The extent of colour constancy achieved varied little with either scene structure or test-object colour, suggesting a dominant role of local cues in determining surface-colour judgments.

Minimum-variance cone-excitation ratios and the limits of relational color constancy.

Relational color constancy refers to the constancy of the perceived relations between the colors of surfaces of a scene under changes in the spectral composition of the illuminant. Spatial ratios of cone excitations provide a natural physical basis for this constancy, as, on average, they are almost invariant under illuminant changes for large collections of natural surfaces and illuminants. The aim of the present work was to determine, computationally, for specific surfaces and illuminants, the constancy limits obtained by the application of a minimum-variance principle to cone-excitation ratios and to investigate its validity in predicting observers' surface-color judgments. Cone excitations and their changes due to variations in the color of the illuminant were estimated for colored surfaces in simulated two-dimensional scenes of colored papers and real three-dimensional scenes of solid colored objects. For various test surfaces, scenes, and illuminants, the estimated levels of relational color constancy mediated by cone-excitation ratios varied significantly with the test surface and only with certain desaturated surfaces corresponded to ideal matches. Observers' experimental matches were compared with predictions expressed in CIE 1976 (u',v') space and were found to be generally consistent with minimum-variance predictions.

Color constancy by asymmetric color matching with real objects in three-dimensional scenes.

Color matching experiments use, in general, stimuli that are poor representations of the natural world. The aim of this work was to compare the degree of color constancy for a range of illuminant pairs using a new matching technique that uses both real objects and three-dimensional (3-D) real scenes. In the experiment, observers viewed a 3-D real scene through a large beamsplitter that projects on the right-hand side of the scene (match scene), the virtual image of a 3-D object (match object) such it appeared part of the scene. On the left-hand side of the scene (test scene), observers viewed a symmetrical scene containing a test object identical to the match object. Test and match objects were both surrounded by the same reflectances with identical spatial arrangement. The illuminant on the test scene had always a correlated color temperature of 25,000 K. The illuminant on the match scene could be any of seven different illuminants with correlated color temperatures in the range 25,000 K-4000 K. In each trial, the observers, who were instructed to perform surface color matches, adjusted the illuminant on the match object. Constancy indices were very high (0.81-0.93), varied with the color of the match object, and increased with the extent of the illuminant change. Observer's mismatches, however, were independent of the extent of the illuminant change.