The colour appearance of self-luminous stimuli

The assessment of lighting quality and comfort requires a good understanding of the correlation between
the photometric quantities of the stimuli, such as the luminance, correlated colour temperature and glare
ratio, and their corresponding perceptual attributes such as brightness, hue and colourfulness. In this
respect, colour appearance models have been developed, simulating many of the adapting physiological
processes taking place in the eye, retina and brain. Until now, most of these models have been developed
with respect to the perception of object colours as illuminated by an illuminant. However, there is at
present no agreed model for the evaluation of the perception of light sources surrounded by a luminous
but independent background. Nevertheless, this situation frequently occurs in everyday situations such as
traffic signals and advertisements, lamps and luminaires. The aim of this project is to gather optical
(spectral radiance) and visual data through measurements and observer assessments. From these data, a
new colour appearance model will be developed which will increase the understanding of the mechanisms
of perception. This research will be executed by the “Instituto de Investigación en luz, ambiente y vision"
(UNT-CONICET, Argentina) and the Light&Lighting Laboratory (KU Leuven, Belgium).