Color information, already shown to be valuable in distinguishing wood surface features, should prove especially useful for future applications of machine vision in the wood products industry. This review provides investigators interested in such applications with the information necessary for understanding the benefits-and associated difficulties-of using color. Various standard color-measurement systems ("color spaces") are discussed. No one system has been completely successful, at least partly because simple physical measurements are difficult to correlate with a human observer's complex perception of color. Color video camera systems, designed with human viewers in mind, have the potential for machine vision applications, but certain system "features" (white balance, gamma or contour correction) could cause problems. Future applications, including detecting and classifying hard-to-identify defects and matching colors of wood components, will require careful choice of lighting geometry and source, camera system, and color space for the purpose at hand
