Abstract:
A VISUAL COMPARISON METHOD AND APPARATUS IN WHICH AN IMAGE OF A SAMPLE IS PRESENTED IN AN IMAGE PLANE WITH A PLURALITY OF DIFFERING COLOR COMPARISON REGIONS WHOSE COLOR ATTRIBUTES, I.E. HUE, SATURATION AND DARKNESS CAN BE PROGRESSIVELY ADJUSTED SO THAT THE COLOR OF THE SAMPLE CAN BE VISUALLY COMPARED WITH THE COMPARISON REGIONS TO ESTABLISH COLOR CORRESPONDENCE WITH ONE REGION. IN ORDER TO FACILITATE SUCH MATCHING A NUMBER OF PROPOSALS ARE PROVIDED: (1) EITHER THE SAMPLE IMAGE OR THE COMPARISON REGIONS ARE TEMPORARILY ELIMINATED, (2) THE SAMPLE IMAGE AND THE CORRESPONDING COMPARISON REGION ARE REPLACED BY A DULL COLOR, (3) THE BORDERLINES BETWEEN THE SAMPLE IMAGE AND THE COMPARISON REGIONS ARE PERIODICALLY SHIFTED,
(4) A COMPLEMENTARY COLOR IS SUPERIMPOSED ON THE FIELD OF VISION TO INCREASE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE SAMPLE COLOR AND THE COMPARISON REGIONS. IN ORDER TO PERMIT DIFFERENT SAMPLE OBJECTS TO BE VIEWED UNDER DIFFERENT ILLUMINATION REQUIREMENTS, THE SAMPLE OBJECTS ARE SUPPORTED IN RESPECTIVE HOLDERS WITH CORRESPONDING OPTICAL DEVICES PROVIDING THE PARTICULAR ILLUMINATION REQUIREMENT, THE HOLDERS BEING INTERCHANGEABLE IN A HOUSING CONTAINING A VIEWER AND THE MEANS FOR PRODUCING THE COLOR COMPARISON REGIONS.
Abstract:
Color evaluation of a color sample is effected by producing in a simultaneous field of vision a plurality of separate color comparison regions each differing in color slightly from one another and juxtaposed with a multiplicity of images of a single small area of a color sample. The color of the sample images can be compared simultaneously with the colors of the comparison regions and a color attribute of the comparison regions varied until visual correspondence is obtained between the sample color and one of the comparison regions.