Luminance Channel Research Articles

A Color Appearance Model Applicable in Mesopic Vision

We propose a color vision model that can be used to predict color appearance in mesopic vision as well as photopic and scotopic vision. It is based on a two-stage model which consists of the cone and opponent stages and it assumes rod intrusion at the opponent stage. The model has the following features to describe the color appearance in mesopic vision. First, it includes a gradual and nonlinear shift in spectral luminous efficiency from V (λLD) to V′ (λLD) to cope with the spectral sensitivity difference between photopic and scotopic vision and the nonlinearity of rod influence on the luminance channel. Second, the model assumes decrease of the chromatic component with decreasing illuminance to explain the reduction of saturation at low illuminance levels. Third, it assumes that red/green and yellow/blue components change with illuminance levels independently, thus explaining hue shifts with decreasing illuminance. We applied the model for color appearance simulation of natural scenes in a mesopic visual environment.

A color image watermarking scheme based on color quantization

Digital watermarking has been widely applied to solve copyright protection problems of digital media relating to illegal use or distribution. In the past few years, several gray-level image watermarking schemes have been proposed, but their application to color image watermarking schemes is scarce and usually works on the luminance or individual color channel. In this paper, a new color image watermarking scheme based on the color quantization technique is proposed. Experimental results are shown to demonstrate the validity of the proposed scheme. Furthermore, the proposed scheme can be applied to other multimedia applications that are based on the color quantization technique.

Color vision.

Many visual disorders produce acquired color vision defects. Color vision theory emphasizes several stages of visual processing: prereceptoral filters (lens, macular pigment, pupil), cone photopigments (L-, M-, and S-cones), and postreceptoral processes (red-green, S-cone, and luminance channels). Congenital color defects, which affect 8% to 10% of males and 0.4% to 0.5% of females, result from alterations in the photopigment absorption spectra or the absence of one or more photopigments. The most common defects are color vision deficiencies (protan and deutan defects), which are milder than the rarer achromatopsias (complete loss of color vision). Acquired color vision defects can be attributed to a number of different causes: alteration of prereceptoral filters, reduced cone photopigment optical density, greater loss of one cone type than the others, and disruption of postreceptoral processes. Acquired color vision defects have been divided into three classes: type 1, red-green defect with scotopization; type 2, red-green defect without scotopization; and type 3, blue defects (with or without pseudoprotanomaly). Blue defects are usually type 3 acquired defects because congenital tritan defects have an incidence of one in several tens of thousands. Red-green defects can be acquired or congenital, and ruling out acquired defects can require a battery of tests (plates and arrangement tests, anomaloscopy, perhaps genetic analysis). Color vision tests must be administered carefully (with a standard illuminant and protocol), and pupillary miosis or high lens density should be noted and their possible effects considered when interpreting test results. Plate tests provide a simple screening method but do not provide a diagnosis. Arrangement tests and anomaloscope testing take more time and make greater demands on the tester, but they provide a more thorough evaluation. When standard protocols are followed and results are interpreted in terms of prereceptoral filters, photopigment optical density, cone loss, and disruption of postreceptoral processes, a battery of color vision tests can be useful in the differential diagnosis, after progression of the disease, and for evaluating the effectiveness of treatment.

Effective color interpolation in CCD color filter arrays using signal correlation

We propose an effective color filter array (CFA) interpolation method for digital still cameras (DSCs) using a simple image model that correlates the R,G,B channels. In this model, we define the constants K/sub R/ as green minus red and K/sub B/ as green minus blue. For real-world images, the contrasts of K/sub R/ and K/sub B/ are quite flat over a small region and this property is suitable for interpolation. The main contribution of this paper is that we propose a low-complexity interpolation method to improve the image quality. We show that the frequency response of the proposed method is better than the conventional methods. Simulation results also verify that the proposed method obtain superior image quality on typical images. The luminance channel of the proposed method outperforms by 6.34-dB peak SNR the bilinear method, and the chrominance channels have a 7.69-dB peak signal-to-noise ratio improvement on average. Furthermore, the complexity of the proposed method is comparable to conventional bilinear interpolation. It requires only add and shift operations to implement.

Cone selective adaptation influences L- and M-cone driven signals in electroretinography and psychophysics.

To assess the influence of selective adaptation of long (L) and middle (M) wavelength sensitive cones with electroretinography (ERG) and psychophysics, a novel adaptation procedure was developed, which comprises a selective and quantifiable change in the state of adaptation in the different cone types. One adaptation condition was used as a reference. In four additional conditions, the M-cones or the L-cones were selectively adapted, so that they absorbed either more or less photons. At each of these five states of adaptation, the ERG response amplitudes to 30Hz L- and to M-cone selective stimuli were measured. Furthermore, the psychophysical sensitivities to L- and M-cone selective stimuli were measured at different temporal frequencies. In subjects with normal color vision, adaptation can have a strong influence on the L- and M-cone driven response amplitudes in the ERG and on both the L- and the M-cone sensitivities in the psychophysical luminance channel. As a result, the L- to M-cone ERG and psychophysical ratios can change dramatically at the different states of adaptation. The cone sensitivity thresholds and the L- to M-cone sensitivity ratio in the psychophysical chromatic channel are about unity at all states of adaptation, suggesting the presence of a compensatory mechanism. In dichromats, the responses and sensitivities to stimulation of the absent cone type were generally small at all states of adaptation. But, with reddish backgrounds residual ERG responses and residual psychophysical sensitivities were observed, indicating the presence of either a robust rod driven signal or an additional adaptation mechanisms that are not cone driven and that have not been described before.

Interactions between color and luminance in the perception of orientation

At the early stages of visual processing in humans and other primates, chromatic signals are carried to primary visual cortex (V1) via two chromatic channels and a third achromatic (luminance) channel. The sensitivities of the channels define the three cardinal axes of color space. A long-standing though controversial hypothesis is that the cortical pathways for color and form perception maintain this early segregation with the luminance channel dominating form perception and the chromatic channels driving color perception. Here we show that a simple interaction between orientation channels (the tilt illusion) is influenced by both chromatic and luminance mechanisms. We measured the effect of oriented surround gratings upon the perceived orientation of a test grating as a function of the axes of color space along which the gratings were modulated. We found that the effect of a surround stimulus on the perceived orientation of the test is largest when both are modulated along the same axis of color space, regardless of whether that is a cardinal axis. These results show that color and orientation are intimately coupled in visual processing. Further, they suggest that the cardinal chromatic axes have no special status at the level(s) of visual cortex at which the tilt illusion is mediated.

Alternating optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) induced by intermittent display of stationary gratings

In this paper, we report a novel optokinetic nystagmus (OKN), which was evoked by stationary gratings presented intermittently. OKN eye movements were accurately measured by the electromagnetic scleral search-coil technique. For the luminance stimuli, alternating OKN was elicited when the interstimulus interval (ISI) ranged from 33 to 83 ms duration and the ISI luminance approximated to the mean luminance of the stimulus grating; for chromatic (red/green) stimuli, the OKN could be evoked in non-isoluminant condition and vanished in the isoluminant condition. It is a plausible explanation that the present OKN, intermittent display-of-gratings-induced OKN (IDG-OKN), might be related to the temporal impulse response of the luminance channel in vision.

23.1: Invited Paper: Isoluminous Color Difference Metric for Application to Displays

AbstractThis paper provides a methodology which bridges the gap between a simple color‐difference metric and a full spatio‐chromatic vision model to predict color differences. Because luminance and chromatic visual channels differ greatly in their spatial sensitivities, more than a single number is needed for specific applications—e.g., performance of softcopy displays. On the other hand, a full vision model implies dependence on the displayed images as well as on the display device, and may be impractical to implement. The compromise proposed here is to adopt in certain cases two color‐difference metrics, one for luminance and the other for chrominance. Because chromatic coordinates are not luminance‐independent in uniform color spaces such as CIELAB, the endpoints of the color difference are made isoluminous prior to transformation to a uniform‐color space.

Second-order statistics of colour codes modulate transformations that effectuate varying degrees of scene invariance and illumination invariance.

We argue, from an ethology-inspired perspective, that the internal concepts 'surface colours' and 'illumination colours' are part of the data format of two different representational primitives. Thus, the internal concept of 'colour' is not a unitary one but rather refers to two different types of 'data structure', each with its own proprietary types of parameters and relations. The relation of these representational structures is modulated by a class of parameterised transformations whose effects are mirrored in the idealised computational achievements of illumination invariance of colour codes, on the one hand, and scene invariance, on the other hand. Because the same characteristics of a light array reaching the eye can be physically produced in many different ways, the visual system, then, has to make an 'inference' whether a chromatic deviation of the space-averaged colour codes from the neutral point is due to a 'non-normal', ie chromatic, illumination or due to an imbalanced spectral reflectance composition. We provide evidence that the visual system uses second-order statistics of chromatic codes of a single view of a scene in order to modulate corresponding transformations. In our experiments we used centre surround configurations with inhomogeneous surrounds given by a random structure of overlapping circles, referred to as Seurat configurations. Each family of surrounds has a fixed space-average of colour codes, but differs with respect to the covariance matrix of colour codes of pixels that defines the chromatic variance along some chromatic axis and the covariance between luminance and chromatic channels. We found that dominant wavelengths of red-green equilibrium settings of the infield exhibited a stable and strong dependence on the chromatic variance of the surround. High variances resulted in a tendency towards 'scene invariance', low variances in a tendency towards 'illumination invariance' of the infield.

Simple reaction time to chromatic changes along L&M‐constant and S‐constant cone axes

AbstractThe present study uses simple reaction time (RT) to examine the temporal response to chromatic changes of the red‐green (L‐2M) and yellow‐blue (S‐(L+M)) chromatic opponent channels. The hue‐substitution method was adopted to negate the luminance channel and generate changes in the chromatic input. The equiluminant stimuli were distributed along three tritanopic and three red‐green confusion lines. RTs were measured at equiluminance from three reference stimuli with chromatic changes occurring in either the tritan or red‐green directions. These reference stimuli also allowed evaluation of the influence of chromatic adaptation level on RT. The results showed that the mean value of RT, for the cone‐input variation either of the L‐2M channel (S‐constant cone axis) or of the S‐(L+M) channel (L&M‐constant cone axis), was described by a similar law as for luminance variations (Piéron's law). Then, the sensitivity of the two channels for chromatic changes was equalized to study their relative response speed. In addition, for both axes, an increase in the chromatic adaptation level lengthens response delay. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Col Res Appl, 26, 223–233, 2001

The transition from scotopic to photopic vision in 3-month-old infants and adults: an evaluation of the rod dominance hypothesis

The scotopic to photopic transition was tested in adults and 12-week-old infants using a large field motion nulling technique at a series of luminances between −3.57 and 2.70 log cd m −2. The stimuli were composed of 0.25 cyc deg −1, 5.6 Hz blue/black and yellow/black sinusoidal grating components, superimposed and moving in opposite directions. The contrasts of the two components were traded off to determine motion nulls at each luminance level. An eye movement based response measure was used for infant subjects, whereas self-report was used in adults. In both age groups, the motion null values approached a scotopic asymptote consistent with V′( λ) at the lowest luminance levels, and a photopic asymptote consistent with V 10( λ) at the highest luminance levels. The scotopic to photopic transition was gradual and occurred over about 3 log units between about −2 and 1 log cd m −2 in both groups. The null values for infants and adults were highly similar at each luminance level, and the shapes of the transition curves were virtually identical at the two ages. These data suggest that at each different luminance level, the balance between rod-initiated and cone-initiated signals in the extrafoveal luminance channel is similar or identical in 12-week-old infants and adults.

L/M cone ratios in human trichromats assessed by psychophysics, electroretinography, and retinal densitometry.

Estimates of the relative numbers of long-wavelength-sensitive (L) and middle-wavelength-sensitive (M) cones vary considerably among normal trichromats and depend significantly on the nature of the experimental method employed. Here we estimate L/M cone ratios in a population of normal observers, using three psychophysical tasks-detection thresholds for cone-isolating stimuli at different temporal frequencies, heterochromatic flicker photometry, and cone contrast ratios at minimal flicker perception--as well as flicker electroretinography and retinal densitometry. The psychophysical tasks involving high temporal frequencies, specifically designed to tap into the luminance channel, provide average L/M cone ratios that significantly differ from unity with large interindividual variation. In contrast, the psychophysical tasks involving low temporal frequencies, chosen to tap into the red-green chromatic channel, provide L/M cone ratios that are always close to unity. L/M cone ratios determined from electroretinographic recordings or from retinal densitometry correlate with those determined from the high-temporal-frequency tasks. These findings suggest that the sensitivity of the luminance channel is directly related to the relative densities of the L and the M cones and that the red-green chromatic channel introduces a gain adjustment to compensate for differences in L and M cone signal strength.

On the relationship between the spatial channels for luminance and disparity processing

To determine the relationship between the spatial channels for luminance and shape-from-stereo-disparity processing we measured disparity modulation sensitivity as a function of disparity spatial frequency for sinusoidal modulations of a field of Gabor micropatterns of differing luminance spatial frequency. We first examine the effects of contrast, spatial bandwidth and element density and show that it is only the last of these which is critical for the shape of the disparity modulation threshold function. We show that the shape of this function depends on the luminance spatial frequency of the surface that is modulated in depth. Specifically, low corrugation frequencies enjoy a greater scale support from the early luminance spatial filters than do high corrugation frequencies. The results are consistent with higher spatial frequency disparity channels receiving a greater input from higher spatial frequency luminance channels.

Color and lightness constancy in different perceptual tasks.

Color and lightness constancy with respect to changing illumination was studied with three different perceptual tasks: ranking of colored papers according (1) to their lightness and (2) to their chromatic similarity in photopic, mesopic, and scotopic states of adaptation, and (3) recognition of remembered colored papers after changes of illumination in photopic vision. Constancy was found in the second task, only. Excitations of light receptors and luminance channels were computed to simulate the empirical rank orders. Results of the first task can be predicted with the hypothesis that luminance channels are activated, if lightness is asked for. Sequences arranged with respect to chromatic similarity were found independent of the illuminant spectra, even if the calculated rank orders of cone excitation were changed in the altered illumination.

Contrast masking reveals spatial-frequency channels in stereopsis.

Yang and Blake (1991 Vision Research 31 1177-1189) investigated depth detection in stereograms containing spatially narrow-band signal and noise energies. The resulting masking functions led them to conclude that stereo vision was subserved by only two channels peaking at 3 and 5 cycles deg-1. Glennerster and Parker (1997 Vision Research 37 2143-2152) re-analysed these data, taking into account the relative attenuation of low- and high-frequency noise masks as a consequence of the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the early visual system. They transformed the data using an estimated MTF and found that peak masking was always at the signal frequency across a 2.8 octave range. Here we determine the MTF of the early visual system for individual subjects by measuring contrast thresholds in a 2AFC orientation-discrimination task (horizontal vs vertical) using band-limited stimuli presented in a 7 deg x 7 deg window at 4 deg eccentricity. The filtered stimuli had a bandwidth of 1.5 octaves in frequency and 15 degrees in orientation at half-height. In the subsequent stereo experiment, the same (vertical) filters were used to generate both signal and noise bands. The noise was binocularly uncorrelated and scaled by each subject's MTF. Subjects performed a 2AFC depth-discrimination task (crossed vs uncrossed disparity) to determine threshold signal contrast as a function of signal and mask frequency. The resulting functions showed that peak masking was at the signal frequency over the three octave range tested (0.4-3.2 cycles deg-1). Comparison with simple luminance-masking data from experiments with similar stimuli shows that bandwidths for stereo masking are considerably larger. These data suggest that there are multiple bandpass channels feeding into stereopsis but that their characteristics differ from luminance channels in pattern vision.

Spatio-Chromatic Image Enhancement Based on a Model of Human Visual Information Processing

A technique for color image enhancement based on a model of the human visual system (HVS) is presented. A color image represented byRGBis first transformed into a color space based on the HVS cone response characteristics. Subsequently, chromatic correlation reduction and energy compression is realized by using a multispectral Karhunen–Loéve transform (KLT) of the cone responses. This yields a color opponent space related to the HVS characteristics. Spatial energy distribution is highly skewed; the chromatic channels contain significantly less relative energy than in standard opponent spaces such asYUV.A constant transform, which closely approximates the input-dependent KLT, has been found. In spite of the little spatial energy in the chromatic channels, chromatic edge enhancement in this space does add significantly to the perception of image detail and enhances its chromatic fidelity, as compared with standard edge enhancement of only the luminance channel. Chromatic edge enhancement is also less sensitive to noise than achromatic edge enhancement. Owing to the simplicity of the transform and enhancement processes, they can be employed for processing real-time video signals.

Dissociation of damage to spatial and luminance channels in early Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy manifested by the visual evoked potential

Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a maternally inherited disorder characterised by the acute or subacute loss of central vision, leading to severe optic atrophy. The occurrence of a demyelinating disease such as multiple sclerosis (MS) has been reported mainly in females with the mitochondrial DNA 11778 mutation. They had a poor visual outcome. To investigate the damage to the optic nerve in an early stage of LHON as compared with optic neuritis (ON), including MS, we examined patients by testing their pattern visual evoked potential (PVEP) and flash VEP (FVEP). The mean amplitude and latency in the PVEP were reduced and delayed, respectively, in patients with LHON or ON. The mean amplitude in the FVEP was reduced in patients with LHON or ON, but the mean latency was not delayed in patients with LHON as compared with normal subjects or patients with ON. Luminance-related fibres may be less affected than are the spatial-vision-related fibres in patients with early LHON.

Temporal integration characteristics of chromatic response as determined by use of the isoluminant double-pulse method

We investigated whether the temporal properties of responses to chromatic change stimuli were different between chromatic channels. We employed the isoluminant double-pulse method to catch responses to a transient chromatic change stimulus. In this method chromatic pulses were presented successively with a stimulus onset asynchrony. The temporal properties were obtained as functions of stimulus onset asynchrony. With the use of this method, it is possible to extract responses from chromatic channels without activating the luminance channel because, even though the chromaticity was varied, the luminance of the chromatic pulses was kept equivalent to that of the white light used as a reference. For the purpose of selectively stimulating each chromatic channel, we used chromatic pulses of which the color was varied along the tritanopic confusion line or the R/G cardinal axis through the reference white on the x–y chromaticity diagram. We showed that there was no difference in the temporal property between chromatic channels by comparing functions representing different degrees of temporal integration of chromatic responses to double pulses. We also found that the functions exhibited a secondary peak, such that the chromatic response could not be represented as a simple low-pass filter function.

Brightness fading during Ganzfeld adaptation

The time course and extent of brightness fading in a Ganzfeld were determined for adapting luminances ranging from 0.01 to 100 cd/m2. Magnitude estimation and interocular brightness matching were used. During Ganzfeld adaptation, perceived brightness decreased slowly and leveled off, on average, after 5-7 min (adapting time increasing with luminance). On average, the total brightness loss was equivalent to a 1.2 log unit reduction in luminance, independent of adapting luminance. The residual brightness perceived at the final plateau was generally higher than the brightness of the Eigengrau, suggesting a partially sustained luminance channel.

Influence of the Luminance and Opponent Chromatic Channels on Stereopsis with Randomdot Stereograms

The present work examines the relationship between random-dot stereograms (via the disparity range parameter) and color-vision mechanisms (via the luminance channel and red-green and tritan directions at isoluminance). The results clearly indicate that the variations in the stereograms along red-green confusion lines contribute to stereopsis. Stereoscopic perception depends on spatial information for stereograms generated with variations along tritan confusion lines. For observers who perceive stereopsis via tritan directions, the results show a gradation in the disparity range, with the disparity range for stereograms generated by luminance variations being greater than for stereograms generated in red-green directions; the latter range is, in turn, greater than for stereograms generated along tritan directions.