Development of Context-Sensitive Formulas to Obtain Constant Luminance Perception for a Foreground Object in Front of Backgrounds of Varying Luminance

Abstract

In this article, we present a framework for developing context-sensitive luminance correction formulas that can produce constant luminance perception for foreground objects. Our formulas make the foreground object slightly translucent to mix with the blurred version of the background. This mix can quickly produce any desired illusion of luminance in foreground objects based on the luminance of the background. The translucency formula has only one parameter; the relative size of the foreground object, which is a number between zero and one. We have identified the general structure of the translucency formulas as a power function of the relative size of the foreground object. We have implemented a web-based interactive program in Shadertoy. Using this program, we determined the coefficients of the polynomial exponents of the power function. To intuitively control the coefficients of the polynomial functions, we have used a B\'{e}zier form. Our final translucency formula uses a quadratic polynomial and requires only three coefficients. We also identified a simpler affine formula, which requires only two coefficients. We made our program publicly available in Shadertoy so that anyone can access and improve it. In this article, we also explain how to intuitively change the polynomial part of the formula. Using our explanation, users change the polynomial part of the formula to obtain their own perceptively constant luminance. This can be used as a crowd-sourcing experiment for further improvement of the formula.Comment: 20 page