Unrelated vs. Related Color Unrelated color: color perceived to belong to an area in isolation (CIE 17.4) Related color: color perceived to belong to an area seen in relation to other colors (CIE 17.4)

Illusory contour Shape, as well as color, depends on surround Most neural processing is about differences

Illusory contour

CS 768 Color Science Perceiving color Describing color Modeling color Measuring color Reproducing color

Spectral measurement Measurement p( ) of the power (or energy, which is power x time ) of a light source as a function of wavelength Usually relative to p(560nm) Visible light nm

Retinal line spread function retinal position relative intensity

Linearity additivity of response (superposition) r(m 1 +m 2 )=r(m 1 )+r(m 2 ) scaling (homogeneity) r(  m)=  r(m) r(m 1 (x,y)+m 2 (x,y))= r(m 1 )(x,y)+r(m 2 )(x,y)= (r(m 1 )+r(m 2 ))(x,y) r(  m(x,y))=  r(m)(x,y) retinal intensity monitor intensity

Non-linearity

Ganglion Bipolar Amacrine Rod Cone Epithelium Optic nerve Retinal cross section Light Horizontal

Visual pathways Three major stages –Retina –LGN –Visual cortex –Visual cortex is further subdivided

Optic nerve 130 million photoreceptors feed 1 million ganglion cells whose output is the optic nerve. Optic nerve feeds the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus approximately 1-1 LGN feeds area V1 of visual cortex in complex ways.

Photoreceptors Cones - –respond in high (photopic) light –differing wavelength responses (3 types) –single cones feed retinal ganglion cells so give high spatial resolution but low sensitivity –highest sampling rate at fovea

Photoreceptors Rods –respond in low (scotopic) light –none in fovea –one type of spectral response –several hundred feed each ganglion cell so give high sensitivity but low spatial resolution

Rods and cones Rods saturate at 100 cd/m 2 so only cones work at high (photopic) light levels All have same spectral sensitivity Low light condition is called scotopic Three cone types differ in spectral sensitivity and somewhat in spatial distribution.

Cones L (long wave), M (medium), S (short) –describes sensitivity curves. “Red”, “Green”, “Blue” is a misnomer. See spectral sensitivity.

Receptive fields Each neuron in the visual pathway sees a specific part of visual space, called its receptive field Retinal and LGN rf’s are circular, with opponency; Cortical are oriented and sometimes shape specific On center rfRed-Green LGN rf Oriented Cortical rf

Visual Pathways Channels (pathways) Magno –Color-blind –Fast time response –High contrast sensitivity –Low spatial resolution Parvo –Color selective –Slow time response –Low contrast sensitivity –High spatial resolution Video coding implications Magno –Separate color from b&w –Need fast contrast changes (60Hz) –Keep fine shading in big areas –(Definition) Parvo –Separate color from b&w –Slow color changes OK (40 hz) –Omit fine shading in small areas –(Definition) (Not obvious yet) pattern detail can be all in b&w channel