GEK1532 Color perception

Thorsten Wohland Dep. Of Chemistry S8-03-06 Tel.: 6516 1248 E-mail: chmwt@nus.edu.sg
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/

Nassau, Fig. 1-16

Which of these shapes at the left is a Kiki and which is a Bouba?

Common problems

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

Nearsightedness/Myopia
1. Too much refractive power, f too small 2. Distant objects (> 2f) are imaged between f and 2f, but f lies in front of the retina 3. To image on the retina one would have to increase f but that is not possible with the lens (try to do it with your finger, but carefully) 4. Near objects are imaged farther away from f. At a certain point that is near enough finally the image will fall on the retina. 5. For all objects nearer than that your eye can then accommodate by decreasing the focus. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

Normal

Retina

x 2f

x f

fx

2f x

Nearsighted

Retina

r ae c t o N l

x 2f

x f

2f x

Common problems

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

Farsightedness/Hyperopia

1. Too little refractive power, f too large 2. Distant objects (> 2f) are imaged between f and 2f; the eye can adjust by decreasing the focus 3. Close objects though give an image that lies so far behind the retina that the eye cannot adjust enough (there are limits to the lens curvature) and the picture gets fuzzy. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

Normal

Retina

x 2f

x f

fx

2f x

Farsighted Retina

x 2f

x f

f 2f x x

2f x

You can only increase the refractive power and thus only decrease the focal length

r ae c t o N l

Common problems

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

Astigmatism

Camera Obscura
Aristotle is the first person we know who used a camera obscura.

http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/cameraob.htm http://brightbytes.com/cosite/what.html

Image Object

Simple eyes: the pinhole eye

www.maayan.uk.com/evoeyes1.html For a nice discussion and some nice explanatory pictures: http://www.dcs.uky.edu/~jaynes/classes/636/Lectures/2001/optical-properties.pdf The pinhole eye. These eyes are a pigmented pit or cup. The best examples of this eye type is from the molluscs, in the cephalopod Nautilusand the abalone Haliotis. The image produced by these eyes is either extremely dim or extremely blurred.

Simple eyes: the camera eye

The lens can be spherical, or it can be formed from a thickening of an outer layer (exoskeleton).

www.maayan.uk.com/evoeyes1.html

The positive lens, also known as the camera eye, is found in vertebrates as well as invertebrates (e.g. humans, some aquatic animals, spiders). This provides a bright picture, with high optical quality.

The superposition eye

www.maayan.uk.com/evoeyes1.html Every sensor on the retina gets its light from several ommatidia.

Focusing

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html This means the eye can only increase the curvature of the surface and thus decrease the focal length.

Image Formation
Object x 2f x f x f Image Object x 2f Object x 2f x f x f Image x f x f Image 2f x 2f x

x 2f

Processing types
1. Color processing -> recognition of colors in a picture 2. Spatial processing -> recognition of shapes in a picture 3. Temporal processing -> recognition of movements in a picture

CAR

The Retina

http://webvision.med.utah.edu/

Blind spot

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/cuius/idle/percept/blindspot.htm

Rods and Cones

Cones: S (short ), M (medium), and L (long) wavelength

All figures: http://webvision.med.utah.edu/

The sensitivity curves of Rods and Cones

A sensitivity curve describes how sensitive a cell (cone or rod) responds to a light source. 2: cell b is much more sensitive than cell a in the ratio 6:1 Example:

sensitivity

6 4 1 a

1) 1000 photons arrive at one of the cells at the wavelength shown at 1. Cell a absorbs 600 photons. Then cell b would absorbs only 150 photons. 2) 1000 photons arrive at one of the cells at the wavelength shown at 2. Cell a would absorbs only 150 photons. Cell b would then absorb 6 times as much, namely 900 photons.

1: cell a is much more sensitive than cell b in the ratio 4:1

The sensitivity curves of Rods and Cones

Maximum sensitivity of S cones ~ 440 nm M cones ~ 530 nm L cones ~ 570 nm Rods ~ 500 nm Note: 1) The rods are much more sensitive than the cones between a hundred (M and L) and several thousand times (compared to S) 2) The S cones are the least sensitive in human vision Nassau, Fig. 1-16 3) There is a strong overlap between the sensitivity curves, and light of one wavelength can possibly excite all three cones.

Alternative diagrams showing the same sensitivity curves

T.N. Cornsweet, Fig. 8.9

Distribution of Rods and Cones

Macula Lutea: The central area in the retina where we have clear vision (high cone densities). Fovea centralis: The central part of the macula lutea. There are no rods, and thus dim objects cannot be seen. But there are many cones and vision is best in this part

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

The Retina
Macula Lutea: The central area in the retina where we have clear vision (high cone densities). Fovea centralis: The central part of the macula lutea. There are no rods, and thus dim objects cannot be seen. But there are many cones and vision is best in this part

http://webvision.med.utah.edu/

Optic nerve: There are more than million nerve cells in an optic nerve. The optic nerve transmits the signal from the retina to the brain. And the nerve itself is much more like brain tissue than nerve tissue. Blind Spot: At the position where the optic nerve enters the eye, there are no rod or cone cells and we are blind at this spot. (http://www.tedmontgomery.com/the_eye/index.html) http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html

http://webvision.med.utah.edu/

How do we get all colors encoded by 3 cones?

Cones: S (short ), M (medium), and L (long) wavelength

All figures: http://webvision.med.utah.edu/

Absorption probability for 500 nm light is 10% (or 0.1)

Monochromats
At 500nm: 1000*0.1=100 At 575 nm 1000*0.015=15

Absorption probability for 575 nm light is 1.5% (or 0.015)

At 575 nm 6667*0.015=100

T.N. Cornsweet, Fig. 8.2

Cones with different sensitivities: Dichromats

Exception: Two cones with different sensitivities but equal relative sensitivities

T.N. Cornsweet, Figs. 8.4 & 8.6

 remember metamerism? T.N. Cornsweet, Fig. 8.7

T.N. Cornsweet, Fig. 8.8

Gamut
The GAMUT of a set of colors are all the colors that can be mixed with this set of colors. Example: 3 cannot be mixed with 1 and 2 in the previous example. Thus 3 is not in the gamut of with 1 and 2 However: 2 can be mixed with 1 and 3. Thus 2 is in the gamut of the set of 1 and 3

A Color Matching Experiment

Matching field: Left eye only 2+ 3

Reference field: Right eye only

The subject has to manipulate the wavelength for the matching field until it shows the same (or closest) color as the refrence field. This does not work in the case we saw before (negative intensity for 3)

A Color Matching Experiment

1+
3

but this configuration works.

Dichromats (2 cones)

Matched field Reference field

The two colored light sources from the left have to be mixed to match in hue, saturation and brightness the color in the reference field (which can be any possible color).
2

Trichromats (3 cones)
R Matched field Reference field G

B The three colored light sources from the left have to be mixed to match in hue, saturation and brightness the color in the reference field (which can be any possible color).

A cure for color blindness?

Suppose you have a monochromat, i.e. a subject with only one sort of cones.

T.N. Cornsweet, Figs. 8.24 and 8.25 Assume you have glasses that absorb then the cones in the two eyes would light differently for the left and right eye see different colors differently.

Cone sensitivity and color

For a dichromat: In a 2D plot we can find for every wavelength one point which represents how much each cone is excited by light of this wavelength. The two axis represent the excitation of the two cones. The curve seen here represents the pure spectral hues (only one wavelength) of a standard constant intensity and how they are perceived by two different cones of a dichromat. T.N. Cornsweet, Fig. 8.12b The dashed line represents light of 620 nm at different intensities.

Cone sensitivity and color

What happens when we have light of two wavelength?

T.N. Cornsweet, Figs. 8.13a and e

Coming back to gamut

Note: With light of two wavelength we can mix almost all colors for the dichromat.

T.N. Cornsweet, Fig. 8.17

Sensitivity space color space

For a trichromat we can create a similar plot, but now in 3D.

T.N. Cornsweet, Fig. 8.18

Sensitivity space color space

T.N. Cornsweet, Fig. 8.19 Here again we see that given three wavelength (pure spectral hues) which we can vary in intensity, we can reproduce any other color within the pyramid (the gamut) they describe with the origin.

Sensitivity space color space

Now let us describe planes where the sum of the absorbed photons of all three cones is always constant.

T.N. Cornsweet, Fig. 10.2

Summary
Retina (rods, cones and their distribution) Cone sensitivities (3 different cones) The number of different cones determines the number of different wavelength we need at least to mix all colors The gamut determines which colors can actually be mixed by a certain colors set Colors can be graphically depicted in a 3D diagram with the axis denoting the cone sensitivities