Light with different spectral distributions can produce the exact same color sensation, so our

perception of color only gives very general information about the spectral content of light. For
example, light coming from a computer display has a different spectral composition than the
light incident on the camera that recorded the image, but both can produce the same color
sensation. This ambiguity can lead to a potentially dangerous situation in the lab. For
example, lasers from 670 nm to 800 nm all appear the same color. (They all stimulate the L
and M cones in essentially the same ratio.) However, your eye’s response falls off quickly in
the near-infrared, so a dangerous 800 nm high-intensity beam can appear about the same
brightness as an innocuous 670 nm laser pointer. S M L 400 500 600 700 800 wavelength
(nm) Figure 2.10 Normalized cone sensitivity functions Because we have three types of
cones, our perception of color can be wellrepresented using a three-dimensional vector
space referred to as a color space. 14 A color space can be defined in terms of three “basis”
light sources referred to as primaries. Different colors (i.e. the “vectors” in the color space)
are created by mixing the primary light in different ratios. If we had three primaries that
separately stimulated each type of rod (S, M, and L), we could recreate any color sensation
exactly by mixing those primaries. However, by inspecting Fig. 2.10 you can see that this
ideal set of primaries cannot be found because of the overlap between the S, M, and L
curves. Any light that will stimulate one type of cone will also stimulate another. This overlap
makes it impossible to display every possible color with three primaries. However, it is
possible to quantify all colors with three primaries, even if the primaries can’t display the
colors—we’ll see how shortly. The range of colors that can be displayed with a given set of
primaries is referred to as the gamut of that color space. As your experience with computers
suggests, we are able to engineer devices with a very broad gamut, but there are always
colors visible in nature that cannot be recreated by a three-primary device. The CIE1931
RGB15 color space is a very commonly encountered color space 13A. Stockman, L. Sharpe,
and C. Fach, “The spectral sensitivity of the human short-wavelength cones,” Vision
Research, 39, 2901-2927 (1999); A. Stockman, and L. Sharpe, “Spectral sensitivities of the
middle- and long-wavelength sensitive cones derived from measurements in observers of
known genotype,” Vision Research, 40, 1711-1737 (2000). 14The methods we use to
represent color are very much tied to human physiology. Other species have photoreceptors
that sense different wavelength ranges or do not sense color at all. For instance, Papilio
butterflies have six types of cone-like photoreceptors and certain types of shrimp have
twelve. Reptiles have four-color vision for visible light, and pit vipers have an additional set of
“eyes” that look like pits on the front of their face. These pits are essentially pinhole cameras
sensitive to infrared light, and give these reptiles crude night-vision capabilities. On the other
hand, some insects can perceive markings on flowers that are only visible in the ultraviolet.
Each of these species would find the color spaces we use to record and display colors to be
very inaccurate. 15CIE is an abbreviation for the French “Commission Interna