Heterochromatic brightness matching experiments to evaluate brightness prediction model including Helmholtz-Kohlrausch effect

Abstract

In this study, the brightness matching experiment was conducted to obtain the equivalent luminance between chromatic and achromatic colors. Observers adjusted the luminance of achromatic colors until achromatic colors were perceived as having the same brightness with chromatic colors. A total of 285 chromatic colors having three different luminance levels, 30cd/m^2, 95cd/m^2, and 300cd/m^2 were used as the test colors. Twenty observers participated in this experiment repeating three times. The results showed that the brightness-to-luminance (B/L) ratio, where brightness means the luminance of achromatic color, increases as CIE 1976 saturation increases in all luminance levels indicating the Helmholtz-Kohlrausch effect. Also, as the luminance level of chromatic color increases, B/L ratio decreases. It is found that the existing color appearance models predicting the H-K effect overestimate the brightness increment by chroma compared to our new heterochromatic brightness matching data set.