Effects of color display, color name, color formation and color alignment on the screen layout usability of customized product color combinations

This study investigated the effects of screen layout on the usability of a large number of color combination options for customized product. Using an L₁₈ orthogonal array, 18 interfaces were designed around four factors: color display, color name, color formation and alignment. Participants completed a color combination search task and a questionnaire concerning their satisfaction with the interfaces.Based on the search time and user satisfaction, the display of color samples by modular sections (itemized color chips) was found to be the optimal method of color selection. This arrangement reduced the number of combinations of color samples displayed on the screen and allowed efficient navigation of a large palette of color combinations. Vertical alignment aided the product color discrimination and reduced the search time. Users viewed various product color combinations directly with or without the aid of color names.

Relevance to industry

Because of the considerable observed reductions in search time and the superior reported degrees of satisfaction associated with the tested configurations for customized product color combination, the findings of this study have important ramifications for consumers and manufacturers of products as diverse as sofas, curtains, clothing, athletic shoes, cars, mobile phones and the other customized products.     

Color spaces and color contrast

With the introduction of low-cost color graphics systems comes a host of problems specifically concerned with the color aspect of the system. This paper discusses two of these problems: the selection and manipulation of colors by (possibly) inexperienced users, and the automatic selection of colors by the system to achieve high contrast effects on the screen. A new color space based on color opponency theory is described. This space is useful both in the user interface and in the automatic selection of high contrast colors.     

The effect of LED lighting on color discrimination and preference of elderly people

The purpose of this study is to find out the effects of light‐emitting diode (LED) lighting on elderly people's color discrimination and preference, to improve the lighting environment for elderly people. In this study, experiments were conducted under LED lighting with two different spectra (with color‐correlated temperature [CCT] of 2800K and 6000K), and three different illuminance levels (30lx; 100lx; 1000lx). Six elderly observers (aged 55–65 years) participated in the experiments and were exposed to each lighting condition to finish one trial of a color discrimination test (Farnsworth–Munsell 100‐Hue Test) and a 7‐scale, 6‐item preference evaluation test. We conclude that elderly people perform better in color discrimination with higher CCT of LED light sources, which compensate for their decreased lens transmission at short wavelength. Their performance also increases with higher illuminance (30lx‐1000lx) of LED lighting. Meanwhile, they prefer higher illuminance, which makes them find the lighting environment more comfortable, brighter, and better for reading; but for CCT, although they feel a higher CCT is better for reading, they still have different tastes regarding CCT of light sources. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Using event-related potentials to identify user emotion caused by product color attribute

The accurate quantification of the correlation between product color attributes and user emotions is the key to product color emotional design (PCED). However, the traditional method of emotion quantification is subjective, one-sided, and contingent, which reduces the reliability of the research results. To this end, this paper proposes a method for PCED based on the quantification of electroencephalogram (EEG) physiological indicators. A medical product, namely an infant incubator, is used as the experimental stimulus samples, and “unsafe-safe” is used as the perceptual imager word pair to conduct EEG measurement experiments of the user's emotional state. Two types of data are obtained in the experiment, namely behavioral data and EEG data. Via the analysis of the two types of data, the EEG physiological characteristic indicators (the event-related potentials (ERPs) components) are obtained, which can explain the user’s emotional cognitive mechanism. Finally, the relationship between the user’s emotional state and EEG characteristics under the influence of product color attributes is explored. The conclusions are as follows. (1) The “safety” emotional value of the two-color samples is higher than that of the three-color samples, which indicates that the simpler the color matching, the higher the safety emotion attribute of the samples. (2) Via the study of the three attributes of hue, lightness, and chroma in the assistant colors of the two-color samples, it is found that when the hue attributes of the samples are red, cyan, and blue, the safety emotional value is higher; moreover, the higher the lightness attribute and the chroma attribute, the higher the safety emotion. Research on the two color attribute dimensions of hue harmony and color tone harmony between the auxiliary color of the three-color samples and the embellishment color revealed that the more consistent the hue harmony, the higher the safety emotion, and the more significant the difference in the color tone harmony, the higher the safety emotion. (3) The reaction time data in the behavioral data demonstrate that the participants had the longest average reaction time under neutral emotions. (4) The results of the time–frequency analysis of the EEG data reveal that there are apparent mid-to-early ERPs components between 100 and 300 ms after the appearance of the stimulus samples. The ERPs component analysis results show that the P1 component can reflect the emotional valence to a certain extent; the higher the amplitude of the P1 component, the more pronounced the negative emotions of the participants, and the lower the safety emotional evaluation value of the two-color samples, the higher the amplitude of the P1 component. Moreover, the N2 and P3 components can reflect the degree of emotional arousal to a certain extent, and the increase in their amplitude indicates the more substantial emotion of the participant; furthermore, the correlation between N2 and emotional arousal is higher. The two-color and three-color experiments revealed that the more neutral the emotional state, the lower the amplitudes of N2 and P3. This research is expected to provide a theoretical foundation and experimental data basis for PCED methods based on EEG physiological indicators.     

A small sample data-driven method: User needs elicitation from online reviews in new product iteration

Eliciting user needs from mass online reviews is playing a significant role in the product iteration process. Efficient user needs elicitation does achieve considerable benefits for maintaining higher competitiveness and a speedier lifecycle. However, there is inevitably an online review scarcity about new products due to the short time on the market and low buyer recognition compared with commonly used products. This paper proposes a small sample data-driven method for user needs elicitation from online reviews in new product iteration. In the first stage, a scraped initial online review dataset is pre-processed roughly to improve the data quality. And then, reviews are classified into multiple categories according to different topics using ERNIE. In the second stage, each topic-based dataset is reprocessed in detail. Thereafter, the key user needs set is determined and facilitated by extracting key product information phrases from every single dataset using improved SIFRank. Moreover, the case study of a smart cat feeder is carried out to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of the ERNIE-ISIFRank methodology. Finally, comparative experiments are conducted to verify the advantages of the proposed method which is primarily based on the pre-trained language model to enhance the deep understanding of the semantics of online reviews. The experimental results confirm that the proposed method can assist in identifying key user needs with high efficiency.     

The rating consistency of aesthetic preferences for icon-background color combinations

This study explored the degree of rating consistency for different icon-background color combinations, and identified the color combinations with the highest rating for consistency. Rating consistency is the degree of agreement among subjective aesthetic preferences for a specific color combination. In total, 3306 color combinations were rated in this study. The standard deviation of each color combination was calculated as the performance measure for assessing rating consistency among subjects for each color combination. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results demonstrated that the gender effect was insignificant and rating consistency was very low for both males and females. Furthermore, the experimental results showed that the color combinations affected rating consistency. Hence, cluster analysis with non-hierarchical procedures was then used to categorize color combinations via the clustering variable, the standard deviation of aesthetic preference ratings. Few color combinations in clusters had an extremely high rating consistency. The results indicated that the degree of rating consistency among subjects varied with color combinations. Therefore, using a single average of user aesthetic preference scores may not be appropriate for application to color combinations. Finally, the 30 color combinations determined experimentally can be used as default color combinations as the color scheme for an interface that can be changed because they have consistently high preference scores.     

Text extraction in complex color documents

Text extraction in mixed-type documents is a pre-processing and necessary stage for many document applications. In mixed-type color documents, text, drawings and graphics appear with millions of different colors. In many cases, text regions are overlaid onto drawings or graphics. In this paper, a new method to automatically detect and extract text in mixed-type color documents is presented. The proposed method is based on a combination of an adaptive color reduction (ACR) technique and a page layout analysis (PLA) approach. The ACR technique is used to obtain the optimal number of colors and to convert the document into the principal of them. Then, using the principal colors, the document image is split into the separable color plains. Thus, binary images are obtained, each one corresponding to a principal color. The PLA technique is applied independently to each of the color plains and identifies the text regions. A merging procedure is applied in the final stage to merge the text regions derived from the color plains and to produce the final document. Several experimental and comparative results, exhibiting the performance of the proposed technique, are also presented.     

A product design method for form and color matching based on aesthetic theory

Form and color matching design are vital links in product design. Recently, many scholars have focused on quantifying visual aesthetics to improve design efficiency in form or color matching design activities. However, few scholars have considered both form and color matching. Therefore, we propose a more comprehensive and practical design model based on the aesthetics theory of form and color matching. This model includes 3 phases: preparation (Phase I), form design (Phase II), and color matching design (Phase III). In Phase I, the target product's functional system and design objectives are clarified. In Phase II, the spatial layouts of the target product are analysed, and several reasonable layouts are designed in detail. Finally, the form with the highest aesthetic measurement is selected from alternatives using the modified equilibrium formula and questionnaire. In Phase III, a group of colors conforming to the target imagery is selected from a color palette. Meanwhile, a set of appropriate observation angles are chosen using an expert questionnaire. Subsequently, three-color combinations with higher color harmony are filled into images with different observation angles. Finally, the aesthetics of color matching schemes are obtained using the formula of color matching, and the scheme with a higher average value of the aesthetic measurement from all observation angles is considered the best scheme. This paper takes the fresh food vehicle and leafless fan as the cases. The best form and color matching scheme are obtained using the formula of aesthetic measurement and verified with an expert questionnaire. The result shows consistency between the results of the quantization formula and the expert questionnaire, which confirms the effectiveness of this design model. The proposed design model could improve the design efficiency and ensure the products' visual aesthetics.     

A novel spectrum‐sequential display design with a wide color gamut and reduced color breakup

Abstract— The advantage of RGB color‐sequential displays is that they have no color filters, but the disadvantage is that they need to run at high refresh rates (> >180 Hz) to prevent flicker and color breakup. An alternative color‐sequential display, which can operate at relatively low refresh rates (～ 100 Hz) without disturbing color breakup or flicker, has been developed. The display has two color filters per pixel (cyan and magenta) on the LCD panel and the backlight can generate two types of spectra (blue‐green and green‐red), which results in a wide gamut four‐primary display, effectively. One part of the paper describes the color reproduction, including color‐filter design, gamut mapping, and multi‐primary conversion. The other part deals with the reduced perception of color breakup on the novel spectrum‐sequential display compared to conventional color‐sequential displays.     

Visualizing color gamuts: a user interface for the effective use ofperceptual color spaces in data displays

The advantages of using perceptually uniform color spaces in data displays are described. It is shown how one-, two-, and three-dimensional representations of color gamuts can provide an understanding, at various visualization levels, of the colors that can be produced on display devices, of how they restrict color displays in practice, and of how they form an essential part of a user interface in the design of color displays     

Preferred and maximally acceptable color gamut for reproducing natural image content

Abstract— With the development of wide‐gamut display technology, the need is clear for understanding the required size and shape of color gamut from the viewers' perspective. To that end, experiments were conducted to explore color‐gamut requirements based on viewers' preferred level of chroma enhancement of standard‐gamut images. Chroma preferences were measured for multiple hues using single‐hue images, and a corresponding hue‐dependent preferred chroma enhancement was successfully applied to natural, multi‐hue images. The multi‐hue images showed overall success, though viewers indicated that reds could be decreased even further in colorfulness, and yellows could be increased, which may argue in favor of multi‐primary displays. Viewer preferences do vary within the population, primarily in overall chroma level, and the differences can be largely accounted for with a single parameter for chroma‐level adjustment that includes the preferred hue dependence. Image content dependencies were also found, but they remain too complex to model. The hue‐dependent chroma preference results can be applied to display design and color‐enhancement algorithms.     

A method for selecting display primaries to match a target color gamut

Abstract— A method for selecting primaries of a wide‐gamut display is proposed, in which display color gamut is designed to match a target color gamut in CIELAB color space. A standard deviation of the relative maximum chroma of display and target color gamuts is defined. The selection method optimizes display primaries for the minimum standard deviation so that display and target color gamuts are similar in shape. It is shown that the color gamut of a laser display designed by this method is similar in shape to the theoretical maximum, or optimal, color gamut of objects. It is also shown that the color gamut of an LED display can be designed to include 99.7% of the gamut of Pointer's real‐world surface colors. LED primaries are selected to minimize the standard deviation of the relative maximum chroma of effective display color gamut and a target color gamut which is defined to include Pointer's real‐world surface colors. For both the laser and LED displays, it is necessary to constrain the red‐primary wavelength to avoid excessive optical power for the red primary.     

Effects of display properties on perceived color‐gamut volume and preference

Abstract— The effect of varying the color gamut of an extended‐gamut LCD on color appearance and preference was measured psychometrically in two experiments at each of two separate laboratories over a representative set of 10 images each. The first experiment measured the effect of color gamut on appearance, and the effect on the appearance attribute colorfulness was shown to be relatively strong compared with other attributes as the volume of display color gamut is varied. Overall, colorfulness monotonically increased at constant sensitivity as the gamut area in xy chromaticities increased while tending to become less and less sensitive to increasing the gamut volumes in CIELAB and CIECAM02. In the second experiment, the overall preference indicated an optimal color gamut for the display gamut volume even though the results were shown to be highly scene dependent.     

Measuring color breakup of stationary images in field‐sequential‐color displays

Abstract— Color breakup is an artifact perceivable on field‐sequential‐color (FSC) displays, both in stationary and in moving images. In this work, a unique device and a method for measuring color breakup on stationary images is proposed. Rotating the field of view of a high‐speed measurement camera in milliseconds simulates saccadic behavior. The target can be a virtual display, a direct‐view display or a projector image. Captured images can be used for quantifying the color breakup of a target display. The results along with an exploration of their application to breakup characterization will be presented.     

Computer artist's color naming system

A natural language based color naming system for color raster graphics, the Artist's Color Naming System (ACNS), is introduced. ACNS is an English-based nomenclature which is a high-level alternative to the numeric HSV (Hue-Saturation-Value) single-hexcone color model. ACNS suggests a grammar, based upon psychological, linguistic and artistic considerations, for constructing several hundred color designations from a small number of English terms. The ACNS twenty-four sided pyramid model and its lexicon are based upon the CNS (Color Naming System) double pyramid model and lexicon. An algorithm and a reverse algorithm for the transformation of the ACNS color space into the RGB (Red-Green-Blue) colorcube, are presented.     

颜色共生矩阵的Fisher信息度量及识别应用

基于多项流形的黎曼几何,提出一个在矩阵流形框架下度量颜色共生矩阵信息差异并将其应用于目标识别的新方法。对于给定的颜色量化水平和每个像素局部邻域,该方法将一幅彩色图像的任意两个颜色通道中共生的颜色建模为一个潜在的多项分布的概率实现。通过基于紧化的共生频率嵌入,可将每幅图像等同为一个积矩阵流形上的一点,其中每个因子流形被赋予了从对应的多项流形上诱导的Fisher信息距离度量。对于一个识别任务,测试样本与训练样本间的匹配通过先在每个因子流形上使用最近邻分类器进行标签预测然后在积流形上进行多数投票完成。在GT彩色人脸库和COIL-100目标库上获得的出色的识别效果验证了该方法的有效性。     

The research on mechanism of color management system based on iCAM color appearance model

Since color recording and color representing abilities of various media are very different, color information is often lost or misrepresented in the process of image transmission and reproduction. A Color Management System (CMS) based on iCAM color appearance model is presented in this paper. It can be used either in computer operation system software or application software for obtaining color consistency across different software applications, imaging devices, imaging media and viewing conditions.     

Hybrid spatial‐temporal color synthesis and its applications

Abstract— A novel approach of synthesizing display color by hybrid color processing in both the spatial and temporal domains is introduced. The rational basis for this approach is found in vision science, and more particularly in the spatial and temporal characteristics of the human visual system. Various examples of the new approach, aiming at different display‐performance objectives, are described. Hybrid spatial‐temporal color synthesis can be used to generate a three‐primary RGB display, the analysis of which reveals a higher spatial resolution and a lower fixed‐pattern noise. The concept has also been used to build, based on a conventional LCD panel in combination with an adapted backlight system, a six‐primary LCD TV with a 22% wider color gamut. Finally, the approach is demonstrated in a four‐primary mobile LCD and results in lower cost combined with a higher display luminance and a wider color gamut.     

基于凸边界的学习样本抽取方法

学习样本的质量和数量对于智能数据分类系统至关重要，但在数据分类系统中没有一个通用的良好方法用于发现有意义的样本。以此为动机，提出数据集合凸边界的概念，给出了快速发现有意义样本集合的方法。首先，利用箱型函数对学习样本集合中的异常和特征不全样本进行清洗；接着，提出数据锥的概念，对归一化的学习样本进行锥形分割；最后，对每个锥形样本子集进行中心化，以凸边界为基础提取距离凸边界差异极小的样本构成凸边界样本集合。实验在12个UCI数据集上进行，并与高斯朴素贝叶斯（GNB）、决策树（CART）、线性判别分析（LDA）、提升算法（AdaBoost）、随机森林（RF）和逻辑回归（LR）这六种经典的数据分类算法进行对比。结果表明，各个算法在凸边界样本集合的训练时间显著缩短，同时保持了分类性能。特别地，对包含噪声数据较多的数据集，如剖腹产、电网稳定性、汽车评估等数据集，凸边界样本集合能使分类性能得到提升。为了更好地评价凸边界样本集合的效率，以样本变化率和分类性能变化率的比值定义了样本清洗效率，并用该指标来客观评价凸边界样本的意义。清洗效率大于1时说明方法有效，且数值越高效果越好。在脉冲星数据集合上，所提方法对GNB算法的清洗效率超过68，说明所提方法性能优越。     

Linear color segmentation and its implementation

A framework for color image segmentation is presented, which combines color histogram analysis and region merging approach. Its main goal is to segment an image at material boundaries (i.e., discontinuities of reflectance properties) while ignoring spatial color inhomogeneities of uniformly pigmented (colored) objects, caused by accidents of illumination and viewing geometry. Theoretical examination of light spectrum transformations upon light reflection from material surfaces and upon interaction with a sensor system shows that in a wide variety of viewed scenes (even containing interreflections and highlight areas) uniformly pigmented objects are projected to the color space of the sensor as planar, linear, or point-like clusters, depending on lighting and viewing conditions and object geometry. To detect such clusters in the color space, three methods are suggested: Generalized Hough Transform method, gradient descent method, and eigenvectors method. A framework algorithm of color segmentation based on region merging approach is developed, which can use any of these methods. Testing this algorithm with both artificially generated and real images shows quite reliable results.