Memory Colors Part I: Comparison of Chinese and German Observers

A deep understanding of how humans assess memory colors is extremely important for various lighting and imaging applications, such as color and image reproduction as well as image enhancement (e.g., in film and TV-studios, in professional and home cinema applications, in shop and museum lighting). Potentially occurring cultural differences have to be considered for obtaining best results – a topic which has barely been discussed in the present literature. The aim of this study, therefore, is to establish a methodology to study memory colors across different countries and cultures based on homogeneous color patches. As a prove of concept, results of Chinese and German observers will be presented and compared. The inter-observer variability was analyzed in CIELAB color space in terms of the mean of color differences from the mean (MCDM) and by calculating chromatic tolerance ellipses. Results indicate that the inter-observer variability in the assessment of the memory colors is strongly context-dependent and twice as large as the inter-group variations. Hence, no significant differences in the overall assessment could be found between Chinese and Germans.