Computerized simulation and chromatic adaptation experiments based on a model of aged human lens

Color appearance seen by old people does not significantly differ from that seen by young subjects even though their ocular lens has become more yello w with age, We calculated the age-related change of lights reflected from M unsell color chips onto the retina, and derived results that show that the chromaticity values of all the color chips shifted to the yellow region of the xy-chromaticity diagram. However, a replot on the CIELAB diagram and th e estimation by means of the von Kries adaptation model suggests that old p eople may compensate their color vision using a general chromatic adaptatio n process. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two experiments: a chromat ic adaptation experiment and a color matching experiment to simulate D65-li ghts as seen by older people but using young subjects. The results indicate that chromatic adaptation does not provide a complete explanation for colo r compensation by older people, suggesting that an age-related change of th e yellow-blue opponent color mechanism may contribute to this compensation.