An acousto-optic colorimeter for color psychophysics
Abstract
A complete model of human color perception requires the ability to present any color as a stimulus.Most existing measurements were collected with physical color samples, and current laboratory generators, such as displays and multi-primary LED systems, work with a small number of fixed primaries. Published color-difference data therefore cover about 40\% of the CIE~xy chromaticity diagram, while commercial wide-gamut displays already reach two thirds of it and need difference metrics there. We describe an acousto-optic colorimeter that lets the experimenter choose the primaries. The device selects up to four narrow bands from a supercontinuum (white-light) laser, each with electronically set wavelength and intensity, and covers 95\% of the CIE~xy chromaticity diagram. Threshold-scale color differences, presented in alternation as in a discrimination experiment, are reproduced with a mean error of 0.08--0.12 CIEDE2000 units (ΔE00) at five CIE-recommended color centers. Because one color can be built from many combinations of narrow bands, the bands are chosen for the task: the finest adjustment for color matching, the least disagreement between observers for color-difference measurement. In simulations with 151~individual observers from a published dataset, with these bands observers see colors 0.6--1.9~ΔE00 from the intended one on average, against 1.2--2.5~ΔE00 on a calibrated wide-gamut LCD, lower at every center. The approach applies to any narrowband source and lets experimenters use saturated colors while limiting the effect of individual differences in color vision.
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BibTeX
@misc{korchagin2026acoustooptic,
title = {{An acousto-optic colorimeter for color psychophysics}},
author = {Sergey Korchagin and Georgiy Lobarev and Pavel Aksentsev and Pavel Maximov and Maria Gracheva and Olga Polschikova and Egor Ershov},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.09144},
eprint = {2611.09144},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.09144},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - An acousto-optic colorimeter for color psychophysics
AU - Sergey Korchagin
AU - Georgiy Lobarev
AU - Pavel Aksentsev
AU - Pavel Maximov
AU - Maria Gracheva
AU - Olga Polschikova
AU - Egor Ershov
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/06
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.09144
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.09144
AB - A complete model of human color perception requires the ability to present any color as a stimulus.Most existing measurements were collected with physical color samples, and current laboratory generators, such as displays and multi-primary LED systems, work with a small number of fixed primaries. Published color-difference data therefore cover about 40\% of the CIE~xy chromaticity diagram, while commercial wide-gamut displays already reach two thirds of it and need difference metrics there. We describe an acousto-optic colorimeter that lets the experimenter choose the primaries. The device selects up to four narrow bands from a supercontinuum (white-light) laser, each with electronically set wavelength and intensity, and covers 95\% of the CIE~xy chromaticity diagram. Threshold-scale color differences, presented in alternation as in a discrimination experiment, are reproduced with a mean error of 0.08--0.12 CIEDE2000 units (ΔE_00) at five CIE-recommended color centers. Because one color can be built from many combinations of narrow bands, the bands are chosen for the task: the finest adjustment for color matching, the least disagreement between observers for color-difference measurement. In simulations with 151~individual observers from a published dataset, with these bands observers see colors 0.6--1.9~ΔE_00 from the intended one on average, against 1.2--2.5~ΔE_00 on a calibrated wide-gamut LCD, lower at every center. The approach applies to any narrowband source and lets experimenters use saturated colors while limiting the effect of individual differences in color vision.
ER -