Chapter 4

Color in Image and Video

Color in Image and Video - Basics of Color

Color is produced by the absorption of selected wavelengths of light by an

object. Objects can be thought of as absorbing all colors except the colors of
their appearance which are reflected back. A blue object illuminated by white
light absorbs most of the wavelengths except those corresponding to blue light.
These blue wavelengths are reflected by the object.

The Eye and Color Sensation

Our perception of color arises from the composition of light - the energy
spectrum of photons - which enter the eye. The retina on the inner surface of
the back of the eye contains photosensitive cells. These cells contain pigments
which absorb visible light. Two types of photosensitive cells
 Cones
 Rods
Rods: are not sensitive to color. They are sensitive only to intensity of light.
They are effective in dim light and sense differences in light intensity - the flux
of incident photons. Because rods are not sensitive to color, in dim light we
perceive colored objects as shades of grey, not shades of color.

Cones: allow us to distinguish between different colors. Three types of cones:

 Red cones: responds to red light
 Green cones: respond to green light
 Blue cones: responds to blue light
The color signal to the brain comes from the response of the three cones to the
spectra being observed. That is, the signal consists of 3 numbers:
 Red
 Green
 Blue
A color can be specified as the sum of three colors. So colors form a 3
dimensional vector space.

For every color signal or photons reaching the eye, some ratio of response
within the three types of cones is triggered. It is this ratio that permits the
perception of a particular color.

Color Spaces

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Color space specifies how color information is represented. It is also called color
model.
Any color could be described in a three dimensional graph, called a color space.
Mathematically the axis can be tilted or moved in different directions to change
the way the space is described, without changing the actual colors. The values
along an axis can be linear or non-linear. This gives a variety of ways to
describe colors that have an impact on the way we process a color image.

There are different ways of representing color. Some of these are:

RGB color space
CMY/CMYK color space
YCbCr color space
CIE color space
YIQ color space
YUV color space
HSL color space
HSV color space

RGB Color Space

RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue. RGB color space expresses/defines color as a
mixture
of three primary colors:
Red
Green
Blue
All other colors are produced by varying the intensity of these three primaries
and mixing the colors. It is used self-luminous devices such as TV, monitor,
camera, and scanner.

Fig RGB color model

Color images can be described with three components, commonly Red, Green,
and Blue. It combines (adds) the three components with varying intensity to
make all other colors. Absence of all colors (zero values for all the components)
create black. The presence of the three colors form white. These colors are

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called additive colors since they add together the way light adds to make
colors, and is a natural color space to use with video displays.

Grey is any value where R=G=B, thus it requires all three (RGB) signals to
produce a
"black and white" picture. In other words, a "black and white" picture must be
computed
- it is not inherently available as one of the components specified.

Pure black (0,0,0)

Pure white(255,255,255)

CYM and CYMK

A color model used with printers and other peripherals. Three primary colors,
cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y), are used to reproduce all colors.

Fig CMY color space

The three colors together absorb all the light that strikes it, appearing black (as
contrasted to RGB where the three colors together made white). "Nothing" on
the paper is white (as contrasted to RGB where nothing was black). These are
called the subtractive or "paint" colors.

In practice, it is difficult to have the exact mix of the three colors to perfectly
absorb all light and thus produce a black color. Expensive inks are required to
produce the exact color, and the paper must absorb each color in exactly the
same way. To avoid these problems, a forth color is often added - black -
creating the CYMK color "space", even though the black is mathematically not
required.

The CMY Color Model

 Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow (CMY) are complementary colors of RGB. They
can
be used as Subtractive Primaries.
 CMY model is mostly used in printing devices where the color pigments on
the paper absorb certain colors (e.g., no red light reflected from cyan ink) and in
painting.
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Fig RGB and CMY cubes
Cyan, magenta, and yellow are used as subtractive primaries

Conversion between RGB and CMY

E.g., convert White from (1, 1, 1) in RGB to (0, 0, 0) in CMY
C=1-R M=1-G Y=1-B

CMYK color model

Sometimes, an alternative CMYK model (K stands for Black) is used in color
printing
(e.g., to produce darker black than simply mixing CMY), where
K = min(C, M, Y), C = C - K,
M = M - K, Y = Y - K.

Colors on self-luminous devices, such as televisions and computer

monitors, are produced by adding the three RGB primary colors in different
proportions. However, color reproduction media, such as printed matter and
paintings, produce colors by absorbing some wavelengths and reflecting others.

The three RGB primary colors, when mixed, produce white, but the three CMY
primary colors produce black when they are mixed together. Since actual inks
will not produce pure colors, black (K) is included as a separate color, and the
model is called CMYK. With the CMYK model, the range of reproducible colors is
narrower than with RGB, so when RGB data is converted to CMYK data, the
colors seem dirtier.

YCbCr
This color space is closely related to the YUV space, but with the coordinates
shifted to allow all positive valued coefficients. It is a scaled and shifted YUV.
The luminance (brightness), Y, is retained separately from the chrominance
(color).

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During development and testing of JPEG it became apparent that chrominance
sub sampling in this space allowed a much better compression than simply
compressing RGB or CYM. Sub sampling means that only one half or one quarter
as much detail is retained for the color as for the brightness.

It is used in MPEG and JPEG compressions

Y = + 0.299 * R + 0.587 * G + 0.114 * B

Cb = 128 - 0.168736 * R - 0.331264 * G + 0.5 * B
Cr = 128 + 0.5 * R - 0.418688 * G - 0.081312 * B

CIE
In 1931, the CIE (Commite Internationale de Eíclairage) developed a color model
based on human perception. They are based on the human eyes response to
red, green and blue colors, and are designed to accurately represent human
color perception. The CIE is a device-independent color model and because of
this it is used as a standard for other colors to compare with. Device-
independent means color can be reproduced faithfully on any type of device,
such as scanners, monitors, and printers (color quality does not vary depending
on the device).

There are different versions of CIE color model. The most commonly used are:
CIE XYZ color model
CIE L*a*b color model

Fig CIE color model

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CIE XYZ
CIE XYZ color model defines three primaries called X, Y, and Z that can be
combined to match any color humans see. This relates to color perception of
human eye. The Y primary is defined to match the luminous efficiency of human
eye. X and Z are obtained based on experiment involving human observers.

Fig CIE XYZ chromacity diagram

Edges represent pure colors

Every color could be assigned a particular point on the coordinate plane
The spectral purity of colors decreases as you move from the edges to the
center of the diagram
Brightness is not taken into consideration in this model

CIE Lab Color Model

A refined CIE model, named CIE L*a*b is introduced in 1976
It is an improvement of CIE XYZ color model
L- represents Luminance
a - ranges from green to red
b - ranges from blue to yellow represents chrominance
Used by Photoshop

YIQ Color Model

YIQ is used in color TV broadcasting, it is downward compatible with Black and
white

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TV. The YIQ color space is commonly used in North American television
systems. Note that if the chrominance is ignored, the result is a "black and
white" picture.

Y (luminance) is the CIE Y primary

Y = 0.299R + 0.587G + 0.114B
the other two vectors
I = 0.596R - 0.275G - 0.321B Q = 0.212R - 0.528G + 0.311B
I is red-orange axis, Q is roughly orthogonal to I.
Eye is most sensitive to Y (luminance), next to I, next to Q.

YIQ is intended to take advantage of human color response characteristics. Eye

is more sensitive to Orange-Blue range (I) than in Purple-Green range (Q).
Therefore less bandwidth is required for Q than for I. NTSC limits I to 1.5 MHZ
and Q to 0.6 MHZ. Y is assigned higher bandwidth, 4MHZ.

YUV Color Model

Established in 1982 to build digital video standard
Works in PAL (50 fields/sec) or NTSC (60 fields/sec)
The luminance (brightness), Y, is retained separately from the chrominance
(color)

The Y component determines the brightness of the color (referred to as

luminance or luma), while the U and V components determine the color itself (it
is called chroma). U is the axis from blue to yellow and V is the axis from
magenta to cyan. Y ranges from 0 to
1 (or 0 to 255 in digital formats), while U and V range from -0.5 to 0.5 (or -128
to 127 in signed digital form, or 0 to 255 in unsigned form).

Fig YUV color model

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One neat aspect of YUV is that you can throw out the U and V components and
get a
grey-scale image. Black and white TV receives only Y (luminanace) component
ignoring the others. This makes it black-white TV compatible. Since the human
eye is more responsive to brightness than it is to color, many lossy image
compression formats throw away half or more of the samples in the chroma
channels (color part) to reduce the amount of data to deal with, without
severely destroying the image quality.

This image shows a slightly tilted representation of the YUV color cube, looking
at the dark (Y = 0) side. Notice how in the middle it is completely black, which is
where U and V are zero, and Y is as well. As U and V move towards their limits,
you start to see their effect on the colors.

This image shows the same cube, from the bright side (Y = 1). Here we have
bright white in the middle of the face, with very bright colors on the corners
where U and V are also at their limits.

Y = R * 0.299 + G * 0.587 + B * 0.114

U = R * -0.169 + G * -0.332 + B * 0.500
V = R * 0 .500 + G * -0.419 + B * -0.0813
The YUV color space is commonly used in European television.
if the chrominance is ignored, the result is a "black and white" picture.

HSL Color Space

HSL stands for Hue Saturation Lightness.
H-represents hue (color)
S-represents saturation. It goes from fully saturated color to equivalent gray.

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Fig HSL color space
The HSL color space stands for Hue, Saturation, Lightness (also luminance or
luminosity). HSL is drawn as a double cone or double hexcone. The two apexes
of the HSL double hexcone correspond to black and white. The angular
parameter corresponds to hue, distance from the axis corresponds to
saturation, and distance along the black- white axis corresponds to lightness.

HSV Color Space (also called HSB)

Stands for Hue Saturation Value.
H-represents color type (red, blue, yellow). It ranges from 0-360 degrees.
Saturation-the vibrancy of color. It ranges from 0-100%.
Value-brightness of color. It ranges from 0-100%.

Fig HSV color model

The color space choice

In August 1991, the International Group 4 color fax Committee decided to
assume
YCbCr would be the standard as they continued their studies. They noted that
YCbCr was mandatory for compatibility with business image systems such as
desktop publishing. For professional graphics, it was mandatory along with
CIELAB for calibration. At the high end of publishing, many color spaces had to
be supported, including YCbCr. In fact, YCbCr was the most widely used color
space in all areas.

By the November 1992 Group 4 color fax meeting in Tokyo, CIELAB 1976 was
selected as the primary color space, with YCbCr as one of several secondary
options. Some of the people involved argue that the particular meeting was
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dominated by people with special interests, and don't believe that decision will
stand.

If CIELAB becomes the fax standard, it would logically be our choice. However,
YCbCr is much more widely used, and preferred by many technical experts.

Beside the RGB representation, YIQ and YUV are the two commonly used in
video.

Summary of Color

Color images are encoded as (R,G,B) integer triplet values. These triplets
encode how
much the corresponding phosphor should be excited in devices such as a
monitor.
Three common systems of encoding in video are RGB, YIQ, and YcrCb(YUV).
Besides the hardware-oriented color models (i.e., RGB, CMY, YIQ, YUV), HSB
(Hue, Saturation, and Brightness, e.g., used in Photoshop) and HLS (Hue,
Lightness, and Saturation) are also commonly used.
YIQ uses properties of the human eye to prioritize information. Y is the black
and white (luminance) image; I and Q are the color (chrominance) images. YUV
uses similar idea.
YUV is a standard for digital video that specifies image size, and decimates the
chrominance images (for 4:2:2 video)
A black and white image is a 2-D array of integers.

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