Beyond R.G.B.: Spectrum-Based Color Imaging Technology

Abstract

The issue of color is now receiving considerable attention in the applications of imaging technology. It is difficult to reproduce the original color of subject in conventional imaging systems, and it obstructs the applications of visual communication systems in telemedicine, electronic commerce, and digital museum. Recently, the color videos, still-images, and prints are reproduced with significantly better quality than before, but there still remain limitations imposed by RGB trichromatic system. To breakthrough the limitation of RGB 3-primary systems, “Natural Vision” system has been developed aiming at an innovative visual communication technology, which enables high-fidelity color reproduction, based on spectral information. The experimental multispectral systems for both still-image and video have been elaborated and shown following features of spectrum-based scheme; a) Highly accurate color reproduction is possible with multispectral imaging, even under different illumination environment. b) Extended color gamut can be reproduced by multiprimary color displays. c) The influence of observer metamerism, which is considered as a cause of color disagreement between different media, can be reduced by the spectral color reproduction. d) The quantitative spectral attributes of object, useful for the analysis or the recognition of object, are captured and preserved. In addition, the effectiveness of the system has been demonstrated through experiments in the application fields, such as medicine, digital archives, color printing, electronic commerce, and computer graphics.