Abstract
Color rendition metrics, which assess light sources in terms of the color quality of illuminated objects, are advancing with the development of lighting technology and with the increasing needs of lighting users. This chapter reviews different metrics of assessing the color quality of light sources. We show that the traditional measures of the color fidelity, such as the standard color rendering index (CRI) and its single-figure-of-merit refinements, fail to correctly assess the color rendition properties of illumination, especially for the light sources having spectral power distributions composed of narrow-band components, such as polychromatic light-emitting diode clusters. These metrics (based on the estimation of color shifts for a small number of test color samples) do not account for the ability of the light sources to increase or decrease the chromatic contrast (color saturating or dulling) and clash with the subjective preferences to the color quality of illumination. Supplementing these conventional measures with additional figures of merit accounting for the gamut area of a small number of the test color samples does not completely address this issue. The color rendition vector approach to the color shifts allows for a much more comprehensive assessment of the color rendition properties. In particular, many issues of the color rendition problem can be resolved using the statistical approach based on the color rendition vector sorting for a large number of the test color samples. However despite the availability of advanced measures of color rendition for experts, the need for an improved color rendition metric that could substitute for the outdated CRI still exists. An alternative approach to rating the light sources in terms of color quality is the color rendition engineering. The color rendition engineering allows for the development of light sources having requested or even tunable (and traded off) color rendition properties (color rendition engines). Such color rendition engines can meet individual and group needs in color quality of illumination. When supplemented with the additional functionalities offered by information and communication technology, the color rendition engines could become the preferred tools of the smart lighting revolution.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Aston SM, Bellchambers HE (1969) Illumination, color rendering, and visual clarity. Light Res Technol 1:259–261
Berns RS (2011) Designing white light LED lighting for the display of art: a feasibility study. Color Res Appl 36:324–334
Bouma PJ (1938) The color reproduction of incandescent lamps and “Philiphan” glass. Philips’ Tech Rev 3:47–49
Bodrogi P (2004) Colour rendering: past, present (2004), and future. In: Proceedings of the CIE expert symposium on LED light sources: physical measurement and visual and photobiological assessment, CIE publication no x026, pp 12–15
Bodrogi P, Csuti P, Horváth P, Schanda J (2004) Why does the CIE color rendering index fail for white RGB LED light sources? In: Proceedings of the CIE expert symposium on LED light sources: physical measurement and visual and photobiological assessment, CIE publication no x026, pp 24–27
Boynton RM, Fargo L, Collins BL (1990) Categorical color rendering of four common light sources. Color Res Appl 15:222–230
Chien M-C, Tien C-H (2012) Multispectral mixing scheme for LED clusters with extended operational temperature window. Opt Express 20:A245–A254
CIE (1965) Method of measuring and specifying colour rendering properties of light sources. CIE publication no 13
CIE (1995) Method of measuring and specifying colour rendering properties of light sources. CIE publication no 13.3
CIE (2004a) Colorimetry. CIE publication no 15
CIE (2004b) A colour appearance model for colour management systems: CIECAM02, CIE publication no 159
CIE (2007) Color rendering of white LED sources. CIE publication no 177
David A (2014) Color fidelity of light sources evaluated over large sets of reflectance samples. Leukos 10:59–75
Davis W, Ohno Y (2005) Toward and improved color rendering metric. Proc SPIE 5941:59411G
Davis W, Ohno Y (2010) Color quality scale. Opt Eng 49:033602
Guo X, Houser KW (2004) A review of color rendering indices and their application to commercial light sources. Light Res Technol 36:183–189
Hashimoto K, Nayatani Y (1994) Visual clarity and feeling of contrast. Color Res Appl 19:171–185
He G, Zheng L (2010) Color temperature tunable white-light light-emitting diode clusters with high color rendering index. Appl Opt 49:4670–4676
Houser KW, Wei M, David A, Krames MR, Shen XS (2013) Review of measures for light-source color rendition and considerations for a two-measure system for characterizing color rendition. Opt Express 21:10393–10411
Judd DB (1967) A flattery index for artificial illuminants. Illum Eng 62:593–598
Koedam M, Opstelten JJ (1971) Measurement and computer-aided optimization of spectral power distributions. Light Res Technol 3:205–210
Lebedenko D, Vaicekauskas D (2014) Light source assessment. Vilnius University Lighting Group, Vilnius. http://demo.lrg.projektas.vu.lt/lcq/en/
Lehmann W (1963) Emission spectra of (Zn, Cd)S phosphors. J Electrochem Soc 110:754–758
Li C, Luo MR, Rigg B, Hunt RWG (2002) CMC 2000 chromatic adaptation transform: CMCCAT2000. Color Res Appl 27:49–58
Luo MR (2011) The quality of light sources. Color Technol 127:75–87
MacAdam DL (1942) Visual sensitivities to color differences in daylight. J Opt Soc Am 32:247–274
Nakamura S, Fasol G (1997) The blue laser diode: GaN based light emitters and lasers. Springer, Berlin
Nakano Y, Tahara H, Suehara H, Kohda J, Yano T (2005) Application of multispectral camera to color rendering simulator. In: Nieves JL, Andres JH (eds) Proceedings of the 10th Congress of the International Colour Association – AIC Colour 05, pp 1625–1628
Narendran N, Deng L (2002) Color rendering properties of LED light sources. Proc SPIE 4776:61–67
Nickerson D (1960) Light sources and color rendering. J Opt Soc Am 50:57–69
Nickerson D, Jerome CW (1965) Color rendering of light sources: CIE method of specification and its application. Illum Eng 60:262–271
Ohno Y (2005) Spectral design considerations for white LED color rendering. Opt Eng 44:111302
Pointer MR (1986) Measuring colour rendering – a new approach. Light Res Technol 18:175–184
Rea MS, Freyssinier-Nova JP (2008) Color rendering: a tale of two metrics. Color Res Appl 33:192–202
Ries H, Leike I, Muschaweck J (2004) Optimized additive mixing of colored light-emitting diode sources. Opt Eng 43:1531–1536
Sándor N, Schanda J (2006) Visual color rendering based on color difference evaluations. Light Res Technol 38:225–239
Schanda J (1999) Colour rendering, CIE TC 1-33 closing remarks. In: CIE collection 1999. Vision and colour. Physical measurement of light and radiation. CIE publication no 135, pp 10–17
Schanda J (2002) The concept of color rendering revisited. In: Proceedings of the 1st European conference on colour in graphics, image, and vision. Poitier, France, pp 37–41
Shakir I, Narendran N (2002) Evaluating white LEDs for outdoor landscape lighting application. Proc SPIE 4776:162–170
Smet KAG, Schanda J, Whitehead L, Luo RM (2013) CRI 2012: a proposal for updating the CIE colour rendering index. Light Res Technol 45:689–709
Thornton WA (1971) Luminosity and color-rendering capability of white light. J Opt Soc Am 61:1155–1163
Thornton WA (1972) Color-discrimination index. J Opt Soc Am 62:191–194
Thornton WA (1973) Fluorescent lamps with high color-discrimination capability. J Illum Eng Soc 3:61–64
Thornton WA (1974) A validation of the color-preference index. J Illum Eng Soc 4:48–52
Tuzikas A, Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R, Petrulis A, Vitta P, Shur M (2014) Artwork visualization using a solid-state lighting engine with controlled photochemical safety. Opt Express 22:16802–16818
University of Eastern Finland, Spectral Color Research Group. http://www.uef.fi/spectral/spectral-database
van der Burgt P, van Kemenade J (2010) About color rendition of light sources: the balance between simplicity and accuracy. Color Res Appl 35:85–93
van Trigt C (1999) Color rendering, a reassessment. Color Res Appl 24:197–206
Walter W (1971) Optimum phosphor blends for fluorescent lamps. Appl Opt 10:1108–1113
Walter W (1978) Optimum lamp spectra. J Illum Eng Soc 7:66–73
Worthey JA (2003) Color rendering: asking the question. Color Res Appl 28:403–412
Worthey JA (2004) Color rendering: a calculation that estimates colorimetric shifts. Color Res Appl 29:43–56
Wyszecki G, Stiles WS (2000) Color science: concepts and methods, quantitative data and formulae. Wiley, New York
Xu H (1983) Color-rendering capacity of illumination. J Opt Soc Am 73:1709–1713
Yaguchi H, Takahashi Y, Shioiri S (2001) A proposal of color rendering index based on categorical color names. In: Proceedings of the International Lighting Congress, vol II. Istanbul, 12−14 Sept 2001, pp 421–426
Zhong P, He G, Zhang M (2012) Spectral optimization of the color temperature tunable white light-emitting diode (LED) cluster consisting of direct-emission blue and red LEDs and a diphosphor conversion LED. Opt Express 20:A684–A693
Žukauskas A, Shur MS, Gaska R (2002a) Introduction to solid-state lighting. Wiley, New York
Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R, Ivanauskas F, Gaska R, Shur MS (2002b) Optimization of white polychromatic semiconductor lamps. Appl Phys Lett 80:234–236
Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R, Ivanauskas F, Vaitkevičius H, Shur MS (2008a) Rendering a color palette by light-emitting diodes. Appl Phys Lett 93:021109
Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R, Ivanauskas F, Vaitkevičius H, Vitta P, Shur MS (2008b) Spectral optimization of phosphor-conversion light-emitting diodes for ultimate color rendering. Appl Phys Lett 93:051115
Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R, Ivanauskas F, Vaitkevičius H, Vitta P, Shur MS (2009) Statistical approach to color quality of solid-state lamps. IEEE J Sel Top Quantum Electron 15:1753–1762
Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R, Shur MS (2010a) Colour-rendition properties of solid-state lamps. J Phys D Appl Phys 43:354006
Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R, Shur M (2010b) Solid-state lamps with optimized color saturation ability. Opt Express 18:2287–22951
Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R (2011) LEDs in lighting with tailored color quality. Int J High Speed Electron Syst 20:287–301
Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R, Vitta P, Tuzikas A, Petrulis A, Shur M (2012a) Color rendition engine. Opt Express 20:5356–5367
Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R, Shur M (2012b) Color-dulling solid-state sources of light. Opt Express 20:9755–9762
Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R, Vitta P, Shur M (2013a) Resolving the ambiguity of color fidelity indices. In: MacDonald L, Westland S, Wuerger S (eds) Proceedings of the 12th congress of the International Colour Association – AIC Colour 2013, vol 3, pp 1129–1132
Žukauskas A, Vaicekauskas R, Vitta P, Zabiliūtė A, Petrulis A, Shur M (2013b) Color rendition engineering of phosphor-converted light-emitting diodes. Opt. Express 21:26642–26656
Acknowledgment
The work at RPI was partially supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center (# EEC-0812056).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Žukauskas, A., Shur, M.S. (2017). Color Rendering Metrics: Status, Methods, and Future Development. In: Karlicek, R., Sun, CC., Zissis, G., Ma, R. (eds) Handbook of Advanced Lighting Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00176-0_49
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00176-0_49
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-00175-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-00176-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering