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Musings on Gertrude Stein and observer metamerism

Musings on Gertrude Stein and observer metamerism INTRODUCTION could apply “An X is an X is an X” to this problem, the problem would be resolved. As a graduate student in 1972, I wondered how the physiology of the different kinds of cones differ within our visual system. Not being bashful, I telephoned Israel Abramov, who even then was a noted neurophysiologist concerned with color. When I asked him my question, he paraphrased Gertrude Stein by saying, “A cone is a cone is a cone.” By this, he meant that cones in the visual system are distinguished only by their photopigments; the electrical signal a cone generates from its bleached photopigment does not depend on whether the photopigment preferentially absorbs long-, medium-, or short-wavelength light. Recently, I have found echoes of Gertrude Stein again, in the quantification of observer metamerism (i.e., observer dependence of color matches). Here, the paraphrase would be “an X is an X is an X (and similarly for Y and Z).” In all indices of observer metamerism, including the one adopted by the CIE,1– 4 it is assumed that color differences are computed the same by any observer, given inputs X, Y, Z from the particular observer. These inputs X, Y, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Color Research & Application Wiley

Musings on Gertrude Stein and observer metamerism

Color Research & Application , Volume 25 (2) – Apr 1, 2000

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References (8)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ISSN
0361-2317
eISSN
1520-6378
DOI
10.1002/(SICI)1520-6378(200004)25:2<88::AID-COL3>3.0.CO;2-8
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

INTRODUCTION could apply “An X is an X is an X” to this problem, the problem would be resolved. As a graduate student in 1972, I wondered how the physiology of the different kinds of cones differ within our visual system. Not being bashful, I telephoned Israel Abramov, who even then was a noted neurophysiologist concerned with color. When I asked him my question, he paraphrased Gertrude Stein by saying, “A cone is a cone is a cone.” By this, he meant that cones in the visual system are distinguished only by their photopigments; the electrical signal a cone generates from its bleached photopigment does not depend on whether the photopigment preferentially absorbs long-, medium-, or short-wavelength light. Recently, I have found echoes of Gertrude Stein again, in the quantification of observer metamerism (i.e., observer dependence of color matches). Here, the paraphrase would be “an X is an X is an X (and similarly for Y and Z).” In all indices of observer metamerism, including the one adopted by the CIE,1– 4 it is assumed that color differences are computed the same by any observer, given inputs X, Y, Z from the particular observer. These inputs X, Y,

Journal

Color Research & ApplicationWiley

Published: Apr 1, 2000

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