Expanding Dimensionality in Cinema Color: Impacting Observer Metamerism through Multiprimary Display

Television and cinema display are both trending towards greater ranges and saturation of reproduced colors made possible by near-monochromatic RGB illumination technologies. Through current broadcast and digital cinema standards work, system designs employing laser light sources, narrow-band LED, quantum dots and others are being actively endorsed in promotion of Wide Color Gamut (WCG). Despite artistic benefits brought to creative content producers, spectrally selective excitations of naturally different human color response functions exacerbate variability of observer experience. An exaggerated variation in color-sensing is explicitly counter to the exhaustive controls and calibrations employed in modern motion picture pipelines. Further, singular standard observer summaries of human color vision such as found in the CIE’s 1931 and 1964 color matching functions and used extensively in motion picture color management are deficient in recognizing expected human vision variability. Many researchers have confirmed the magnitude of observer metamerism in color matching in both uniform colors and imagery but few have shown explicit color management with an aim of minimized difference in observer perception variability. This research shows that not only can observer metamerism influences be quantitatively predicted and confirmed psychophysically but that intentionally engineered multiprimary displays employing more than three primaries can offer increased color gamut with drastically improved consistency of experience. To this end, a seven-channel prototype display has been constructed based on observer metamerism models and color difference indices derived from the latest color vision demographic research. This display has been further proven in forced-choice paired comparison tests to deliver superior color matching to reference stimuli versus both contemporary standard RGB cinema projection and recently ratified standard laser projection across a large population of color-normal observers

Digital Color Imaging

This paper surveys current technology and research in the area of digital color imaging. In order to establish the background and lay down terminology, fundamental concepts of color perception and measurement are first presented us-ing vector-space notation and terminology. Present-day color recording and reproduction systems are reviewed along with the common mathematical models used for representing these devices. Algorithms for processing color images for display and communication are surveyed, and a forecast of research trends is attempted. An extensive bibliography is provided

Derivation and modelling hue uniformity and development of the IPT color space

Metric color spaces have been determined to be significantly non-uniform in the hue attribute of color appearance. Several independent sources have confirmed the non-uniformity. A data set was obtained during the course of this thesis work that contains the largest sampling of color space to date which can be used to compare models of color appearance. The data set obtained was compared to existing data sets and found to correspond closely. Lookup table methods were employed to test significant differences between data sets. A simple modeling approach was taken based on commonly understood color space models and knowledge of the visual system. Several color spaces can be derived using the simple model, and one was chosen that models hue uniformity very well and has other desirable attributes. This new color space is named IPT. Many visual data sets were plotted in the IPT color space and all show improved performance over industry standard color spaces. The IPT color space has applications in color data representation, gamut mapping, and color appearance modeling

A Paradigm for color gamut mapping of pictorial images

In this thesis, a paradigm was generated for color gamut mapping of pictorial images. This involved the development and testing of: 1.) a hue-corrected version of the CIELAB color space, 2.) an image-dependent sigmoidal-lightness-rescaling process, 3.) an image-gamut- based chromatic-compression process, and 4.) a gamut-expansion process. This gamut-mapping paradigm was tested against some gamut-mapping strategies published in the literature. Reproductions generated by gamut mapping in a hue-corrected CIELAB color space more accurately preserved the perceived hue of the original scenes compared to reproductions generated using the CIELAB color space. The results of three gamut-mapping experiments showed that the contrast-preserving nature of the sigmoidal-lightness-remapping strategy generated gamut-mapped reproductions that were better matches to the originals than reproductions generated using linear-lightness-compression functions. In addition, chromatic-scaling functions that compressed colors at a higher rate near the gamut surface and less near the achromatic axis produced better matches to the originals than algorithms that performed linear chroma compression throughout color space. A constrained gamut-expansion process, similar to the inverse of the best gamut-compression process found in this experiment, produced reproductions preferred over an expansion process utilizing unconstrained linear expansion

Appearance-based image splitting for HDR display systems

High dynamic range displays that incorporate two optically-coupled image planes have recently been developed. This dual image plane design requires that a given HDR input image be split into two complementary standard dynamic range components that drive the coupled systems, therefore there existing image splitting issue. In this research, two types of HDR display systems (hardcopy and softcopy HDR display) are constructed to facilitate the study of HDR image splitting algorithm for building HDR displays. A new HDR image splitting algorithm which incorporates iCAM06 image appearance model is proposed, seeking to create displayed HDR images that can provide better image quality. The new algorithm has potential to improve image details perception, colorfulness and better gamut utilization. Finally, the performance of the new iCAM06-based HDR image splitting algorithm is evaluated and compared with widely spread luminance square root algorithm through psychophysical studies

Evaluation and optimal design of spectral sensitivities for digital color imaging

The quality of an image captured by color imaging system primarily depends on three factors: sensor spectral sensitivity, illumination and scene. While illumination is very important to be known, the sensitivity characteristics is critical to the success of imaging applications, and is necessary to be optimally designed under practical constraints. The ultimate image quality is judged subjectively by human visual system. This dissertation addresses the evaluation and optimal design of spectral sensitivity functions for digital color imaging devices. Color imaging fundamentals and device characterization are discussed in the first place. For the evaluation of spectral sensitivity functions, this dissertation concentrates on the consideration of imaging noise characteristics. Both signal-independent and signal-dependent noises form an imaging noise model and noises will be propagated while signal is processed. A new colorimetric quality metric, unified measure of goodness (UMG), which addresses color accuracy and noise performance simultaneously, is introduced and compared with other available quality metrics. Through comparison, UMG is designated as a primary evaluation metric. On the optimal design of spectral sensitivity functions, three generic approaches, optimization through enumeration evaluation, optimization of parameterized functions, and optimization of additional channel, are analyzed in the case of the filter fabrication process is unknown. Otherwise a hierarchical design approach is introduced, which emphasizes the use of the primary metric but the initial optimization results are refined through the application of multiple secondary metrics. Finally the validity of UMG as a primary metric and the hierarchical approach are experimentally tested and verified

The effect of image size on the color appearance of image reproductions

Original and reproduced art are usually viewed under quite different viewing conditions. One of the interesting differences in viewing condition is size difference. The main focus of this research was investigation of the effect of image size on color perception of rendered images. This research had several goals. The first goal was to develop an experimental paradigm for measuring the effect of image size on color appearance. The second goal was to identify the most affected image attributes for changes of image size. The final goal was to design and evaluate algorithms to compensate for the change of visual angle (size). To achieve the first goal, an exploratory experiment was performed using a colorimetrically characterized digital projector and LCD. The projector and LCD were light emitting devices and in this sense were similar soft-copy media. The physical sizes of the reproduced images on the LCD and projector screen could be very different. Additionally, one could benefit from flexibility of soft-copy reproduction devices such as real-time image rendering, which is essential for adjustment experiments. The capability of the experimental paradigm in revealing the change of appearance for a change of visual angle (size) was demonstrated by conducting a paired-comparison experiment. Through contrast matching experiments, achromatic and chromatic contrast and mean luminance of an image were identified as the most affected attributes for changes of image size. Measurement of the extent and trend of changes for each attribute were measured using matching experiments. Proper algorithms to compensate for the image size effect were design and evaluated. The correction algorithms were tested versus traditional colorimetric image rendering using a paired-comparison technique. The paired-comparison results confirmed superiority of the algorithms over the traditional colorimetric image rendering for the size effect compensation