Color measurements have traditionally been linked to expensive and difficult to handle equipment. The set of mathematical transformations that are needed to transfer a color that we observe in any object that doesn’t emit its own light (which is usually called a color-object) so that it can be displayed on a computer screen or printed on paper is not at all trivial. This usually requires a thorough knowledge of color spaces, colorimetric transformations and color management systems. The TCS3414CS color sensor (I2C Sensor Color Grove), a system for capturing, processing and color management that allows the colors of any non-self-luminous object using a low-cost hardware based on Arduino, is presented in this paper. Specific software has been developed in Matlab and a study of the linearity of chromatic channels and accuracy of color measurements for this device has been undertaken. All used scripts (Arduino and Matlab) are attached as supplementary material. The results show acceptable accuracy values that, although obviously do not reach the levels obtained with the other scientific instruments, for the price difference they present a good low cost option.

Head-mounted displays allow us to go through immersive experiences in virtual reality and are expected to be present in more and more applications in both recreational and professional fields. In this context, recent years have witnessed significant advances in rendering techniques following physical models of lighting and shading. The aim of this paper is to check the fidelity of the visual appearance of real objects captured through a 3D scanner, rendered in a personal computer and displayed in a virtual reality device. We have compared forward versus deferred rendering in real-time computing using two different illuminations and five artwork replicas. The survey contains seven items for each artwork (color, shading, texture, definition, geometry, chromatic aberration, and pixelation) and an extra item related to the global realism. The results confirm recent advances in virtual reality, showing considerable visual fidelity of generated to real-world images, with a rate close to 4 in a 5-step perceptive scale. They also show a high correlation of the realism sensation with the fidelity of color reproduction, material texture, and definition of the artwork replicas. Moreover, statistically significant differences between two rendering modes are found, with a higher value of realism sensation in the deferred rendering mode.

It is well known that there are different preferences in correlated color temperature of light sources for daily living activities or for viewing artistic paintings. There are also data relating the capacity of observers to make judgments on color differences with the spectral power distribution of the light source used. The present work describes a visual color discrimination experiment whose results confirm the existence of a relationship between the correlated color temperature of a light source and the color discrimination capacities of the observers.