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Perceptual Colour Matching

Matching Displays that use Di erent Illumination
Technologies
All colour calibration is perceptual. Just because a probe is often used to take measurements
doesn't change that fact!

CALIBRATION FAILURE

With the advent of

OLED display
technology there has
been an industry-wide
realisation that the
existing 1931 CIE 2
degree observer colour
matching function (CMF)
is not actually accurate
enough for colour
matching many modern
displays.

The issue was initially thought to be primarily due to the widely varying spectral colour
distribution of the di erent technologies, causing the probes used to make colour readings

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report variations that are not within visually acceptable tolerances.

However, it is now generally accepted to be due almost exclusively to the amount of spectral
energy emitted in the blue region below 460nm. This has become a consensus to the point that
speci c phrasing to that e ect has even made its way into some of the more recent standards
that give consideration for alternate CMFs to deal with this challenge.

COLOUR METAMERISM

In display colourimetry, metamerism is the ability to match colours on di erent displays with
di erent spectral power distributions, caused by the use of di erent display technologies.

Colour Metamerism is based on the fact that the human visual system has only three types of
cone photoreceptors making it possible for two stimuli to match in perceived colour without
having identical spectral power distributions, and so metameric colour matching occurs.

From this we get the opposite - the apparent metameric failure of displays, where the measured
pro le data of two displays match perfectly with respect to the numbers reported by the
measuring probe, but visually the displays obviously do not match, as seen in the image above.

SONY AND JUDD MODIFICATION

As the rst source of OLED based display Sony were the rst to come up against metameric
failure, and quickly adopted the Judd 1951 Modi cation concept, which is proposal for a
modi cation to CIE 1931 for wavelengths that are shorter than 460nm. This modi cation has
been con rmed by other studies performed by Stiles (1955), Ishak and Teele (1955) and Vos
(1978), but for practical reasons has never been adopted by CIE standards.

While the actual concept of the Judd modi cation is valid, in practical terms it can only be applied
as a simple o set to the measured white point, and it is here that problems occur - as Sony have
found out themselves!

SONY CHANGING THE TARGET

When Sony rst attempted to deal with metameric failure of their OLED displays they released a
set of chromaticity xy o set values, that ranged from -0.001, -0.009, through -0.004, -0.013,
depending on the probe used, and alternative display technology to be matched to.

In later documentation on the White Balance of BVM and PVM displays Sony reduced these
values to a single set of xy o sets - x=-0.006, y=-0.011.

The problem is that none of these values are actually accurate, as the concept of simply adding
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an o set value to an existing CMF is too much of a compromise to correct for metameric failure...

A far better approach is to utilise the in-built capabilities of LightSpace CMS to signi cantly
improve the perceptual colour match variation between two displays of di ering technologies.

PERCEPTUAL COLOR MATCHING USING LIGHTSPACE CMS

The following is a far more accurate approach to overcoming display metameric failure, and will
work with any display technology.

1) Place both displays to be accurately matched in the same line of sight.

2) Chose which of the displays is to be the 'master'.

(In the above the larger display is the more accurate, as the smaller OLED shows the usual
'green/cyan' colour cast.)

3) Calibrate the master display to the target colour space standard required - Rec709 for example
- using the normal LightSpace CMS calibration procedure.

4) Display a at white patch on both displays.

(Do not use 100% white - 95% or slightly below is recommended - as this ensures there is no
'peak colour clipping' occurring.)

5) manually adjust the 'colour' (colour temperature) of the second display to visually match the
master display
(Using RGB Gain controls is the simplest approach.)

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PERCEPTUAL WHITE POINT MATCHING

When perceptually matching white points, any other display capabilities are not relevant - gamut,
gamma, etc. Interest is only in the white point. This actually means any display that has an accurate
white point (can be calibrated to be accurate) can be used as the perceptual reference.

For example, just about all LCD displays provide accurate white points based on probe measured
data, so it is possible to 'white point calibrate' any LCD display and use that as the reference to match
any other display to when performing calibration. This means a simple Laptop screen can be used,
regardless of its gamut and/or gamma capabilities...

Note: this does not mean LCD displays are accurate out of the box! Far from it usually - they must be
'calibrated' to have an accurate white point.

Just place a 95% white patch on the Laptop screen and measure with a probe and LightSpace CMS,
adjusting the RGB Gain to get an accurate white point (colour temperature), to which the alternate
display can be perceptually matched.

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In the above image the laptop has been accurately calibrated to display a 'perfect' white point, and
Colour
while brighter than the larger Made
display Simple
the 
white point is perceptually accurate. In the real world
reducing the laptop brightness to match that of the other screens would further improve the
perceptual matching.

The smaller OLED screen's white point can then be manually adjusted (via RGB Gain for example) to
perceptually match the laptop screen (and the larger screen).

6) When a perceptual match is attained measure the new colour temperature xy values with
LightSpace CMS in live 'measure' mode, and note the xy values for later use.

7) Make and save a new Colour Space Target using the previously recorded xy values, and save
with a speci c name.

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8) Reset the adjustments made to the second display to attain the perceptual match, putting the
display beck to its default colour temp.

9) Pro le the second display as normal.

10) Create a 3D calibration LUT as normal with LightSpace CMS, but select the new 'Colour Space
Target' as the Source. This will generate a custom 'Perceptually Matching' 3D LUT for use on the
second display, matching it to the 'master' display as accurately as possible.

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OVERCOMING JUDD MODIFICATION LIMITATIONS

The above approach will overcome the limitations of the simpli ed 'o set' approach of Judd
Modi cation, providing the best possible match for any display technologies, while still using the
actual measured pro le data to perform the display calibration, with a weighted white point o set
that is used throughout the entire 3D LUT generation procedure.

This approach is far more e ective than a post-calibration white point o set, as is suggested and
used with alternative calibration procedures that attempt to overcome metameric failure.

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USING A LIGHTSPACE CMS LAPTOP AS 'REFERENCE WHITE'

As is discussed above 'most' laptop screen can easily be calibrated to display a 'perfect' reference
white using standard calibration techniques as the LCD displays used perform as expected with
regard to spectral colour distribution.

A very simple way to calibrate a LightSpace CMS laptop screen is to use SpaceMatch DCM, as that
will perfectly align the screen's greyscale, and hence white point.

With the laptop screen accurately calibrated for the correct white point (colour temperature) it
can then be used as a visual reference for perceptual colour matching.

With SpaceMatch DCM you can quickly and easily turn on/o the applied correction, as you will
NOT want it active when using the laptop's HDMI output for closed-loop display calibration of an
external display.

See the SpaceMatch DCM page and the SpaceMatch DCM User Manual for further information.

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Have Questions?
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ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL & SUPPORT INFO.

FSI White Paper: Perceptual Color Matching Using LightSpace CMS

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