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Read the articleAUTHORS
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Daniel DUPONT: Lecturer-Researcher at ESTIT, École supérieure des techniques industrielles et des textiles - Member of ERASM, Research team in automatic systems and microsystems - Member of GEMTEX, Materials and Textile Engineering Laboratory
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Daniel STEEN: Lecturer-Researcher at ESTIT, École supérieure des techniques industrielles et des textiles - Head of ESTIT Colorimetry Laboratory - Member of GEMTEX, Materials and Textile Engineering Laboratory
INTRODUCTION
This article is a reworking of the Colorimetry article previously written by Françoise CORNO-MARTIN.
The aim of colorimetry is to specify the color of light sources, as well as that of transparent or diffusing materials (opaque bodies, colored filters).
The basic colorimetric concepts are based on the experimental laws of color equalization of light rays, where the observer's eye acts as a zero device for judging the identity of two contiguous areas. It is to the three types of retinal cones, sensitive only to diurnal light levels, that we owe the colored aspect of sensation.
The mechanisms of color vision are explained using both trichromatic theory, valid at the level of retinal receptors, and antagonistic pair theory, valid at the level of the lateral geniculate bodies (bulges at the posterior end of the brain's optic layer). The colorimetric systems recommended by the CIE (International Commission on Illumination) only take into account the trichromatic aspect when specifying colors.
Readers may wish to refer to the following articles:
"Quantitative optics: Photometry. Colorimetry. Spectrometry" in the treatise Sciences fondamentales ;
"Color and visual appearance: the transparent and the opaque" and "Color and visual appearance: metallic and structural effects" to appear in the treatise Sciences fondamentales ;
"Application of colorimetry to surface color control" in the present treatise ;
"Radiometry. Photometry", "Optical pyrometry" in the present treatise;
"Lighting. Basic data" in the Construction section.
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Colorimetry
Properties of color vision
Bibliography
Organizations
(non-exhaustive list)
AFNOR (Association Française de NORmalisation) http://www.afnor.fr
AIC (Association Internationale de la Couleur) http://www.iscc.org/aic2001
CIE publications
(non-exhaustive list)
1. Method for measuring and specifying the color rendering qualities of light sources. CIE Publication No. 13.3, Paris, 1995.
2. Colorimetry. CIE Publication No. 15.2, Vienna, 1986.
3. International Lighting Vocabulary. CIE Publication No. 17.4, Geneva, 1987.
4. The basis of physical photometry. CIE...
Publication of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
1. International Lighting Vocabulary. IEC Publication 50 (845)/ CIE No. 17-4, 1987, 365 p., Central Office of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Geneva, Switzerland.
Publication by Centre d'Information de l'Éclairage
1. Luminance meter. Center d'Information de l'Éclairage, Hors-série, n° 7, Oct. 1987.
Standards
(non-exhaustive list)
- Illuminants colorimétriques normalisés CIE, 1999. - ISO/CIE 10526 : -
- Observateurs de référence colorimétriques CIE, 1991. - ISO/CIE 10527 : -
- Standard method for computing the colors of objects by using the CIE system. ASTM E 308-85. American Society for testing and materials. Philadelphie 1985. - ASTM : -
Recueil AFNOR: Couleurs et Colorimétrie, 2000
- Dictionnaire...
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