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Color Constancy and Categories

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Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology
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Synonyms

Categorical color constancy; Color categorization; Color classification; Color identification; Color naming; Color sorting

Definition

Color constancy is defined here as the ability to identify surface color across variations in ambient illumination or scene context. Presuming that an important function of color vision is to help identify objects and object properties based on surface color (e.g., ripe fruit, fresh fish), stable appearance is not a necessary requirement, as long as the percept is sufficiently constant for color identification. One aspect of color perception that may be relevant here is the ability to classify colors into a small number of categories; it may be sufficient for color identification across illumination changes to maintain constancy of color categories.

Color Constancy

The Problem

Color perception is a computational challenge because the light reaching the eye confounds information about the stable surface property that we care about – surface...

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Correspondence to Maria Olkkonen .

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Olkkonen, M. (2020). Color Constancy and Categories. In: Shamey, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_402-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_402-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27851-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27851-8

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