Color rendition engine

A source of white light with continuously tuned color rendition properties, such as color fidelity, as well as color saturating and color dulling ability has been developed. The source, which is composed of red (R), amber (A), green (G), and blue (B) light-emitting diodes, has a spectral power distribution varied as a weighted sum of white RGB and AGB blends. At the RGB and AGB end-points, the source has a highest color saturating and color dulling ability, respectively, as follows from the statistical analysis of the color-shift vectors for 1269 Munsell samples. The variation of the weight parameter allows for continuously traversing all possible metameric RAGB blends, including that with the highest color fidelity. The source was used in a psychophysical experiment on the estimation of the color appearance of familiar objects, such as vegetables, fruits, and soft-drink cans of common brands, at correlated color temperatures of 3000 K, 4500 K, and 6500 K. By continuously tuning the weight parameter, each of 100 subjects selected RAGB blends that, to their opinion, matched lighting characterized as most saturating, most dulling, most natural, and preferential. The end-point RGB and AGB blends have been almost unambiguously attributed to most saturating and most dulling lighting, respectively. RAGB blends that render a highest number of colors with high fidelity have, on average, been attributed to most natural lighting. The preferential color quality of lighting has, on average, been matched to RAGB blends that provide color rendition with fidelity somewhat reduced in favor of a higher saturation. Our results infer that tunable color rendition engines can validate color rendition metrics and provide lighting meeting specific needs and preferences to color quality.(C)2012 Optical Society of America