Simulations of adaptation and color appearance in observers with varying spectral sensitivity

Abstract

A model of adaptation and visual coding was used to simulate how color appearance might vary among individuals that differ only in their sensitivity to wavelength. Color responses to images were calculated for cone receptors with spectral sensitivities specific to the individual, and in postreceptoral mechanisms tuned to different combinations of the cones. Adaptation was assumed to normalize sensitivity within each cone and postreceptoral channel so that the average response to an ensemble of scenes equaled the mean response in channels defined for the reference observer. Image colors were then rendered from the adapted channels' outputs. The transformed images provide an illustration of the variations in color appearance that could be attributed to differences in spectral sensitivity in otherwise identical observers adapted to identical worlds, and examples of these predictions are shown for both normal variation (e.g. in lens and macular pigment) and color deficiencies (anomalous trichromacy). The simulations highlight the role that known processes of adaptation may play in compensating color appearance for variations in sensitivity both within and across observers, and provide a novel tool for visualizing the perceptual consequences of any variation in visual sensitivity including changes associated with development or disease.