1. Color from a Systems Point of View

As we begin to explore the perception of color, it is important to understand the attributes of our environment, our tools, and our visual system which influence the perception of color. We begin with a walk in the wild to explore our changing perception of color. We explore this experience, describing color in a three-dimensional space, which changes as illumination changes. This experiential exploration emphasizes the fact that is important to describe color, not just in a two-dimensional space but a three-dimensional space which includes a luminance dimension. From the real world to the virtual world, we discuss the need for color accuracy in virtual experiences from retail to medicine. The purpose of this chapter is to define the system components and some of their attributes which influence the perception of color. We will then expand on each of these influences in subsequent chapters to provide a holistic view of color perception. This information is used to help understand the advantage of multi-primary color displays.