Investigation of Memory Colors of Chinese Observers

Long-term memory colors of familiar objects are of great significance in the applications such as imaging, lighting, and color reproduction. Previous studies of memory color were mainly conducted on the surface color samples under variable illuminations or images presented on displays. In this work, memory colors of Chinese observers with a set of 22 familiar objects have been investigated on a well-calibrated display. A specially developed psychophysical method and an operational program were applied for the observers to match the homogenous patch colors through object name descriptions with their memory colors on a self-luminous monitor in a given viewing situation. The results of inter-observer variability were analyzed in CIELAB color space by mean of color differences from the mean (MCDM) and tolerance ellipse. The two indexes were found to be consistent. Our aim is to establish a methodology both to study memory colors and to quantify the specific Chinese memory colors, which can benefit for further image enhancement.