Development of a novel tissue‐mimicking color calibration slide for digital microscopy

Digital microscopy produces high resolution digital images of pathology slides. Because no acceptable and effective control of color reproduction exists in this domain, there is significant variability in color reproduction of whole slide images. Guidance from international bodies and regulators highlights the need for color standardization. To address this issue, we systematically measured and analyzed the spectra of histopathological stains. This information was used to design a unique color calibration slide utilizing real stains and a tissue‐like substrate, which can be stained to produce the same spectral response as tissue. By closely mimicking the colors in stained tissue, our target can provide more accurate color representation than film‐based targets, whilst avoiding the known limitations of using actual tissue. The application of the color calibration slide in the clinical setting was assessed by conducting a pilot user‐evaluation experiment with promising results. With the imminent integration of digital pathology into the routine work of the diagnostic pathologist, it is hoped that this color calibration slide will help provide a universal color standard for digital microscopy thereby ensuring better and safer healthcare delivery.     

Thermochromism of fluorescent colors

Fluorescence (sometimes called rapid luminescence or just luminescence) has been scientifically studied for 150 years. Recent advances in daylight simulators, ultraviolet filters, and measurement devices (for example, advances in the commercial two‐monochromator measurement devices) have made it possible to study this phenomenon more accurately. Many factors affect the color of a fluorescent object. One of these factors is the temperature of the sample. It is known that, for example, the reflectance of the nonfluorescent ceramic color reference tiles used for calibration of colorimeters and spectrophotometers is temperature dependent. This phenomenon is called thermochromism, which means a reversible change of a color of the sample as a function of temperature. The phenomenon can also be detected in fluorescent colors, although fluorescent samples show quite different thermochromic properties that have not been extensively studied and are partly unknown. In this article we first discuss the thermochromism of nonfluorescent samples. We consider the meaning of thermochromism for fluorescent color measurements. Novel experimental data are provided and the temperature‐dependent changes in samples' radiance spectra are analyzed and proven to be significant. In some fluorescent samples the thermochromic changes can be as high as 4 times the thermochromic changes in some nonfluorescent samples in the same temperature scale (e.g., red fluorescent paint sample versus red ceramic sample, with equivalent temperature changes). In addition, a two‐component thermochromic model is introduced to discuss the phenomenon of thermochromism more closely. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 30, 163–171, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20104     

A novel Color Rendition Chart for digital tongue image calibration

Digital tongue images are usually acquired by a camera under specific illumination environments. In order to guarantee better color representation of the tongue body, we propose a novel tongue Color Rendition Chart acting as a color reference to be used in color calibration algorithms to standardize the captured tongue images. First, based on a large tongue image database captured with our digital tongue image acquisition system, we establish a statistical tongue color gamut. Then, from the first step, different quantities of colors in the Color Rendition Chart are determined via experimentation. Afterwards, results using X‐Rite's ColorChecker® Color Rendition Chart (a standard in the color calibration field) are compared with the proposed tongue Color Rendition Chart by applying the color difference calculation formula of CIELAB and CIEDE2000 as a reference for the mean color calibration error. The results show that the proposed tongue Color Rendition Chart, which has 24 colors, produces a much smaller error (CIELAB —8.0755/CIEDE 2000—6.3482) compared with X‐Rite's ColorChecker® Color Rendition Chart (CIELAB 1976—14.7836/CIEDE 2000—11.7686). This demonstrates the effectiveness of the novel tongue Color Rendition Chart.     

Color samples for colorimetric fidelity testing in television

The case for testing television (TV) colorimetric reproduction performance for groups of colors is discussed. The groups consist of colors which have some characteristic in common, like strong or moderate saturation. Such groups actually contain a large number of discernible colors but these are for testing purposes represented by a set with a limited number of reference samples. In recommended methods the evaluation of the performance for the group is based on the average of the individual color differences for the samples in the set. This average is here based on the CIE 1976 color difference ΔE_uv* and designated ΔE_a*. The question investigated is what properties the reference samples in the set should have to make D̊E_a* the best estimator of performance for the whole group. It is shown that the samples should be chosen for evenness in distribution and uniformity in lightness, preferably representative of average scene lightness. These points seem to have been overlooked for some presently recommended sets as illustrated by an example. Experimental data for TV cameras indicate that a collection of 10 color samples might be satisfactory for colorimetric acceptance testing.     

Color naming experiments using 2D and 3D rendered samples

This article describes a color naming experiment using 2D and 3D rendered color samples. Conventional color naming experiments using a priori clues generally involve 2D clues such as color patches. However, in real‐world scenes, most objects have 3D shapes whose colors are affected by illumination effects such as shadows and gloss. We use 2D and 3D rendered samples as clues in the experiments, and analyze the relationship between color terms and object surfaces. First, we develop a color term collection system that can produce 218 test colors. We render the color images of a flat disk as a 2D sample and a sphere as a 3D sample on a calibrated display device. It is supposed that the 2D and 3D surfaces with the same object color are obtained under the same conditions of viewing and illumination. The results of color naming experiments show that there are differences for color terms between 2D and 3D samples. Important findings are as follows: (1) brighter color terms tend to be chosen for the 3D samples than the 2D samples, when observing achromatic colors, (2) achromatic color terms are chosen for 3D samples having low saturation, and (3) for chromatic colors, a darker color term is generally chosen in comparison to the corresponding 2D samples of the same color. These properties become more prominent by changing the illumination angle from 0° to 45° to the surface normal. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 270–280, 2015     

Changes in color appearance with variations in chromatic adaptation

Chromatic adaptation has been studied by applying methods of direct scaling to color appearances of invariant stimuli seen under different conditions of adaptation. The influence on color appearance of correlated color temperature of illumination, sample luminance factor, illuminance, and surround induction was studied. Perceived hue [expressed as proportions of unitary hues] varies with color temperature of illumination but not significantly with luminance factor or illuminance for the conditions of these experiments. Colorfulness varies with color temperature and also with luminance factor and illuminance, although relative colorfulness does not change significantly with illuminance. Lightness varies with luminance factor but is essentially independent of color temperature and illuminance over the ranges investigated here. Achromatic and chromatic lightnesses for samples of equal luminance differ in systematic ways that depend upon dominant wavelength and excitation purity. Color appearance data for daylight adaptation are highly correlated with Munsell Renotation specifications. The results may be used to determine corresponding colors for the adaptation conditions studied [equivalent to CIE Illuminants D₆₅, D₅₀, A, and dark adaptation]. They may also be used to determine color appearances under those conditions throughout a color solid. It is anticipated that they will be used as the basis for developing mathematical expressions for predictions of corresponding colors under other illumination conditions as well.     

Color-rendering capacity of light

Two types of questions, both related to color-rendering properties of light, can be identified. Type A: Given a spectral reflectance chip under illumination of a certain spectral power distribution, What color can appear? Does the appearing color, in comparison with a reference one, look right or distorted? Type B: Given a great many chips of different spectral reflectance functions under illumination of a certain spectral power distribution, How many different colors, no matter what colors, can appear? Are there a great many different colors or just a few different colors appearing? Questions of type A reflect an important aspect of color-rendering properties and can be tackled with an established measure, the CIE color-rendering index. Questions of type B, related to quite another aspect of color-rendering properties, have particular relevance when illumination's function of making things visible is of most concern. This article discusses a new measure, the color-rendering capacity (CRC), developed for dealing with questions of type B, and explains the measure's derivation, calculation, and implications.     

Some modifications to Hering's opponent‐colors theory

Some modifications are made to the achromatic color perceptions in Hering's opponent‐colors theory. They are the introduction of the reference color Gray and the use of the orthogonal coordinate system. The modified opponent‐colors theory has a symmetrical structure for the three opponent‐colors axes, whiteness‐grayness‐blackness, redness‐grayness‐greenness, and yellowness‐grayness‐blueness, and it unifies the Hunt and the Stevens and Jameson–Hurvich effects. It is also noted that two kinds of color‐appearance spaces exist. One is the color‐appearance space derived from color perceptions of object colors (called the CPS color‐appearance space). The other is that modeled from their colorimetric values for predicting color perceptions (called the UCS color‐appearance space). The CPS color‐appearance space is mainly described in this article. Scaling of the CPS color‐appearance space and the existence of the reference color perception Gray are discussed in detail. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Col Res Appl, 26, 290–304, 2001     

Surface color and color constancy

Color constancy is often treated as the tendency of surfaces to stay the same perceived color under changing illumination or context (removing/adding/replacing surrounding objects). But these types of color constancies are not basic ones and there is another kind of color constancy that is fundamental for the explanation of all color constancy phenomena. We experience it when looking at a curved uniformly colored surface or when changing the shape of the surface. A new concept of surface color is developed and the variety of all perceived colors is suggested to be described as a nine-dimensional set of 3 X 3 matrices corresponding to different surface colors. Examples of color matrices calculated for some colored surfaces being viewed by the standard viewer are presented and arguments supporting the concept are discussed. It is shown that the set of color matrices represents all perceived colors quite adequately.     

Chromatic adaptation to illumination investigated with adapting and adapted color

The state of chromatic adaptation was investigated by using the two‐room technique. This technique involves a subject in a room who looks a white board in a separate test room through a window and judges the color of the window using the elementary color naming method. When the subject room is illuminated with a colored light and the test room with a white light, the window appears to be a very vivid color, for which the apparent hue depends on the color of the subject room. The color is referred to as the adapted color. The subject also evaluated the appearance of the illumination color of the subject room, which is called the adapting color. Two types of illuminating light in the subject room, fluorescent lamps with 7 colors and LED lamps with 19 colors, were employed. The adapting and the adapted colors were plotted on a polar diagram that was used in the opponent color theory, from which the hue angles were obtained. The hue angle difference between the two colors did not appear to be 180° except for one pair of adapting and the adapted colors, which implies that chromatic adaptation does not follow the opponent color concept. An improvement was achieved to explain the results by introducing complementary colors relation between the adapting and adapted color.     

Physics‐based spectral sharpening through filter‐chart calibration

The spectral overlap of color‐sampling filters increases errors when using a diagonal matrix transform, for color correction and reduces color distinction. Spectral sharpening is a transformation of colors that was introduced to reduce color‐constancy errors when the colors are collected through spectrally overlapping filters. The earlier color‐constancy methods improved color precision when the illuminant color is changed, but they overlooked the color distinction. In this article, we introduce a new spectral sharpening technique that has a good compromise of color precision and distinction, based on real physical constraints. The spectral overlap is measured through observing a gray reference chart with a set of real and spectrally disjoint filters selected by the user. The new sharpening method enables to sharpen colors obtained by a sensor without knowing the camera response functions. Experiments with real images showed that the colors sharpened by the new method have good levels of color precision and distinction as well. The color‐constancy performance is compared with the data‐based sharpening method in terms of both precision and distinction. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 564–576, 2015     

Locating basic colors in the OSA space

The color specimens developed by the OSA Committee on Uniform Color Scales are intended to provide a uniform sampling of the three-dimensional domain of realizable surface colors. The research of this article confirms the distinction between basic and nonbasic color terms and defines the locations of the eleven basic surface colors within the OSA space through systematic, monolexemic color naming of 424 samples of the OSA set seen against a gray background. It is concluded that the coordinate system of the OSA color space is well suited to the specification of color order: The locations of the basic colors are reasonably arranged and can be conveniently and precisely visualized.     

Color Properties of Liquid Crystals and Their Application to Visual Arts*

Selective reflection properties of cholesteric liquid crystals are reviewed. It is then shown that the color of superimposed coatings of these substances is perceived as that of an additive mixture of colors of the coatings. This property permits one to synthesize many spectral reflectance distributions. A greater color gamut than is possible with other colorants can be realized. Applications to visual arts that take advantage of the additive color properties, the highly saturated colors, and the dependence of colors on temperature, angle of illumination, and angle of viewing are discussed.     

Study of color perceptibility of gonio‐apparent panels with curvature angle

Color tolerances of curved gonio‐apparent panels have been studied in this work. To achieve that, an experimental set‐up of the illumination and tilt variation of two identical coated panels was designed for simulation of curved panels with both concave and convex borders and with and without effect pigments (perceived as solid and gonio‐apparent colors, respectively). Finally, visual and instrumental measures were collected with both curvatures. The results show that the relationship of the instrumental color difference with the tilt angle can be modeled by a second‐order and the vertex did not depend on illumination, but on coating type. The critical angles (the angle marked when the color discrepancy between two identical samples is merely perceived) assessed by the observers showed that they were not equal according to border, nor according to coating type. The color tolerances at these angles were clearly higher than the conventional chromatic thresholds of industrial color comparisons.     

Categorical color constancy under RGB‐LED light sources

The light‐emitting diode (LED)‐based light sources have been widely applied across numerous industries and in everyday practical uses. Recently, the LED‐based light source consisting of red, green and blue LEDs with narrow spectral bands (RGB‐LED) has been a more preferred illumination source than the common white phosphor LED and other traditional broadband light sources because the RGB‐LED can create many types of illumination color. The color rendering index of the RGB‐LED, however, is considerably lower compared to the traditional broadband light sources and the multi‐band LED light source (MB‐LED), which is composed of several LEDs and can accurately simulate daylight illuminants. Considering 3 relatively narrow spectral bands of the RGB‐LED light source, the color constancy, which is referred to as the ability of the human visual system to attenuate influences of illumination color change and hold the perception of a surface color constant, may be worse under the RGB‐LED light source than under the traditional broadband light sources or under the MB‐LED. In this study, we investigated categorical color constancy using a color naming method with real Munsell color chips under illumination changes from neutral to red, green, blue, and yellow illuminations. The neutral and 4 chromatic illuminants were produced by the RGB‐LED light source. A modified use of the color constancy index, which describes a centroid shift of each color category, was introduced to evaluate the color constancy performance. The results revealed that categorical color constancy under the 4 chromatic illuminants held relatively well, except for the red, brown, orange, and yellow color categories under the blue illumination and the orange color category under the yellow illumination. Furthermore, the categorical color constancy under red and green illuminations was better than the categorical color constancy under blue and yellow illuminations. The results indicate that a color constancy mechanism in the visual system functions in color categories when the illuminant emits an insufficient spectrum to render the colors of reflecting surfaces accurately. However, it is not recommended to use the RGB‐LED light source to produce blue and yellow illuminations because of the poor color constancy.     

OSA uniform color scale samples: A unique set

The Optical Society of America, in early 1977, published a set of uniformly scaled coor samples based on specifications developed after long years of study by its Committee on Uniform Color Scales. The model for arranging and specifying the samples is based on an octahedral unit which consists of a cluster of 12 colors equally different from a central color and from each of its nearest neighbors. This space lattice, extended to accommodate all samples that can be produced within the gamut of present-day colorants, is described, together with the adopted system of notation. The lattice provides three sets of square grids and four sets of triangular grids that correspond to the seven pairs of parallel faces of a cuboctahedron. Horizontal, vertical, and oblique cleavage planes through the lattice are described and illustrated. The OSA-UCS set consists of 558 samples: 424 represent a regular 2-unit sampling of OSA-UCS committee space; 134 additional samples are provided in the much used, near-neutral, central-lightness region of color space. The set is unique because each sample in the regular set is represented in six different uniform color scales. These appear as linear arrays that pass in six different directions through each sample. The samples are intended for use by artists and designers as well as by scientists. With a relatively small number of samples, material is provided for constructing color scales and charts with colors uniformly spaced in six directions in any chosen part of color space. The OSA-UCS set provides a “storehouse of color-contrast information in efficient form.” It provides useful color research material such as has never before been available.     

Color reproduction on shrink sleeves

Wrapping heat‐deformable plastic labels around packages relies on a shrinking process. Shrinking plastic labels distorts not only the shape but also the color of the printed artwork. In this study, we analyze and model the color shifts induced by shrinkage. The ultimate goal is to generate full color images which after shrinking have colors as close as possible to the original colors. For this purpose, we present a thickness enhanced Clapper–Yule prediction model. Its calibration requires spectral measurements of original, nonshrunk samples, as well as the measured shrinkage factors. With the prediction model, we establish a table creating the correspondences between target colors after shrinking and ink area coverages. This enables creating color images which after shrinking match the original images. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 41, 56–63, 2016     

厌氧一好氧交替工艺生物除磷及活性污泥特殊染色

研究了“厌氧－好氧交替工艺”生物除磷工艺,确定最佳厌氧时间为1．5h,最佳好氧时间为4h。应用特殊染色法直接将活性污泥制成切片染色,通过显微镜镜检PHB、Poly-p(聚磷颗粒）,可以监测除磷效果。     

数字中间片后期制作中的色彩管理

在色彩管理中使用LUT具有相当大的潜在应用价值。LUT是一个简单的数据结构,它把每一个输入值映射到相应的输出值,并且还可以确定视频硬件里每帧图像中每一个像素的数据值的大小。模仿和校正LUTs提供的转换,不但能保证多种显示器之间的匹配,而且在后期制作过程中还可以使显示的图像与胶片完美的匹配。介质中呈现的色彩组叫做色彩范围。电影正片的色彩范围与数字显示器的色彩范围具有不同的特性。数字中间片(DI)工艺有2种不同的图像编码方法:一种是使用DPX文件,其作用是进行输入和输出及表示底片密度,预览画面则需要显示LUT;另一种方法是不使用LUT而直接显示图像数据。图像数据显示的是显示器的色彩范围,而不是胶片的色彩范围。在记录到胶片上之前,数据需要转换成密度值。在制作DI过程中,可以模仿洗片厂配光工序,通过调节印片光号进行的色彩校正。本文从8个方面较详细的叙述了制作数字中间片时的色彩管理。