We develop sensor transformations, collectively called spectral sharpening, that convert a given set of sensor sensitivity functions into a new set that will improve the performance of any color-constancy algorithm that is based on an independent adjustment of the sensor response channels. Independent adjustment of multiplicative coefficients corresponds to the application of a diagonal-matrix transform (DMT) to the sensor response vector and is a common feature of many theories of color constancy, Land's retinex and von Kries adaptation in particular. We set forth three techniques for spectral sharpening. Sensor-based sharpening focuses on the production of new sensors as linear combinations of the given ones such that each new sensor has its spectral sensitivity concentrated as much as possible within a narrow band of wavelengths. Databased sharpening, on the other hand, extracts new sensors by optimizing the ability of a DMT to account for a given illumination change by examining the sensor response vectors obtained from a set of surfaces under two different illuminants. Finally in perfect sharpening we demonstrate that, if illumination and surface reflectance are described by two- and three-parameter finite-dimensional models, there exists a unique optimal sharpening transform. All three sharpening methods yield similar results. When sharpened cone sensitivities are used as sensors, a DMT models illumination change extremely well. We present simulation results suggesting that in general nondiagonal transforms can do only marginally better. Our sharpening results correlate well with the psychophysical evidence of spectral sharpening in the human visual system.

© 1994 Optical Society of America

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription