VIRTUAL COLOR - COMMUNICATION STANDARD AND ANALYTICAL TOOL

A number of problems have been identified with existing colour specifi cation systems and their physical exemplifications: colorimetric condi tions (illuminant, observer, spectrophotometer geometry, specular comp onent inclusion/exclusion, etc.), restrictions of the notational syste m adopted, and limitations of the colour atlases themselves (sample si ze, sample error, sample range, etc.). Developments in computer scienc e, and in particular CRT displays and colour printing devices, now pro vide increasingly more affordable alternatives to traditional colour r anges and atlases. Techniques have been developed to increase the accu racy of printed colours relative to their CRT originals, and devices a re manufactured to calibrate colour monitors. However, colour selectio n software developed to date is still primarily, based on existing col our ranges and colour specification systems, or on a more general mech anism specific to all individual application. It is argued that basing such software on an existing model of colour specification inherits s ome of the problems of that system: notational methodology, means of r epresentation, and atlas limitations, Ir is proposed that the restrict ions imposed by such software be relaxed by providing a flexible metho d of constructing application-specific colour specification systems wi th conversion to a standardized notation for accurate colour communica tion. Furthermore, it is proposed that such a tool would be invaluable for the evaluation of human colour perception. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.