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Colour statistics of natural and man‐made surfaces

Stephen Westland (Colour & Imaging Institute, University of Derby, Kingway House East, Kingsway, Derby DE22 3HL, UK. E‐mail: s.westland@colour.derby.ac.uk)
Julian Shaw (Colour & Imaging Institute, University of Derby, Kingway House East, Kingsway, Derby DE22 3HL, UK.)
Huw Owens (Colour & Imaging Institute, University of Derby, Kingway House East, Kingsway, Derby DE22 3HL, UK.)

Sensor Review

ISSN: 0260-2288

Article publication date: 1 March 2000

633

Abstract

The reflectance spectra of natural and man‐made surfaces are highly constrained. Statistical analyses have been conducted that confirm that the surface reflectance spectra form a set of band‐limited functions with a frequency limit of approximately 0.02 cycles/nm. The reflectance spectra can be represented by a linear‐model framework and are adequately described by 6‐12 basis functions. However, the spectral properties of surfaces are not so constrained as to allow the human visual system to recover the surface properties from cone excitations. Furthermore, trichromatic colour devices such as scanners and cameras can only capture illumination‐specific colour information.

Keywords

Citation

Westland, S., Shaw, J. and Owens, H. (2000), "Colour statistics of natural and man‐made surfaces", Sensor Review, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 50-55. https://doi.org/10.1108/02602280010311392

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 2000, MCB UP Limited

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