New Figure of Merit for Color Reproduction Ability of Color Imaging Devices using the Metameric Boundary Descriptor

A measure for the color reproduction ability of a color imaging device is important for comparison purposes as well as for the sensor design process. Several figures of merit which describe this ability in a single measure have been proposed in the past. All these measures have shortcomings in that their error measure is defined in a non-representative color space for human color perception, or they do not consider measurement noise, or they rely on a specific color correction function. We introduce a new figure of merit for color reproduction ability of digital imaging devices. This new approach uses the metameric boundary descriptor (MBD) to quantify the limit of color reproduction for this sensor. It is therefore independent of the color correction method used. The error measure is defined in a perceptually uniform color space (CIELab) and takes measurement noise into account. Only the spectral sensitivities of an imaging device are needed. The advantages over existing quality measures as well as the plausibility of the assumptions required are discussed. Quality measures for 5 different cameras are presented. Key–Words: Image quality, Optical filters, Spectral Sensitivity, Colorimetry, Quality Measure