Technical Reports

1995

@techreport{Bok1995,
	vgclass =	{report},
	author =	{Steven M. Boker},
	title =	{The Representation of Color Metrics and Mappings in
	Perceptual Color Space},
	institution =	{Department of Psychology, The University of Virginia},
	address =	{Charlottesville, Virginia 22903},
	year =	{1995},
	abstract =	{Color is not a physical property of objects, it is a
	perceptual representation of the distribution of photon energy quanta
	within a reflectance or emission spectrum produced by an object. The
	function which maps these distributions of photon energy quanta onto
	our perceptions of color has been studied in one guise or another for
	over three hundred years. An historical review of the literature
	related to the construction of a perceptual color space is presented
	here, beginning with Newton and ending with current thought. Perceptual
	color space refers to the representational framework in which our
	perceptions of color relate to one another. A uniform metric for the
	perception of color has remained something of a mirage, at once seeming
	to be easily attainable and yet always just out of reach.

	This article presents a rethinking of the problem of representation of
	both the space of photic stimuli and the perceptual color space within
	the context of the theory of Riemann manifolds. The color perception
	mapping function is suggested to be highly similar to statistical
	problems in which distributions need to be uniquely characterized with
	a few invariants. An argument is presented that perceptual color space
	needs to be represented in at least four dimensions in order to
	accurately capture and discriminate the distributions of photon energy
	quanta present in real world objects.},
}