Visual system’s adjustments to illuminant changes: heuristic-based model revisited

This study evaluates the effect of illuminant changes along the two post-receptoral mechanisms: red-green (L - 2M) and yellow-blue (L + M - S). By means of a CRT colour monitor, Mondrian-type scenes were simulated and a series of asymmetric colour matches were made with five test illuminants. The standard objects comprising the scenes were simulations of surfaces under equal-energy illuminant and were selected according to lines of equal excitation of the red-green and the yellow-blue mechanisms. Results show that observers' matches are well predicted by assuming affine transformations between test and standard illuminant conditions. The best linear fits derived from the data corroborates the previous heuristic-based algorithms [Zaidi Q. (1998) Journal of the Optical Society of America A. 7. 1767-1776] although some discrepancies were found. Results along red-green mechanism confirm that the significant effect of the illuminant is an additive change along this axis, while data for yellow-blue mechanism suggest that illuminant induces not only multiplicative changes along this axis but additive too. In addition, we found that memory factors involved in the experiment could influence the observers' matches and would be taken into account as responsible of the differences found between the yellow-blue and the red-green systems.