Kowa Koida Toyohashi Universitiy of Technology

How do environmental factors shape our color vision? Hue, one of the three attributes of color, is important for object recognition, but it is known to have a strange trajectory in color space, known as the Abney effect. In this study, we focus on the fact that the Abney effect is similar to the color change due to the concentration of pigments, and investigate whether the Abney effect is a color change that occurs universally in nature through spectral simulation and spectroscopic imaging. If so, it suggests that environmental factors such as pigmentation may have shaped our hue perception. In addition, some color gradations, caused by changes in concentration cannot be expressed by the three primary colors, may provide “transparent” and “deep” colors.