Motion minima for different directions in color space

Difficult at dusk? Illuminating the debate on cricket ball visibility

OBJECTIVES

Investigate the visibility of new and old red, white and pink cricket balls under lighting and background conditions experienced during a day-night cricket match.

DESIGN

We modelled the luminance contrast signals available for a typical observer for a ball against backgrounds in a professional cricket ground, at different times of day.

METHODS

Spectral reflectance (light reflected as a function of wavelength) was derived from laboratory measurements of new and old red, white and pink balls. We also gathered spectral measurements from backgrounds (pitch, grass, sightscreens, crowd, sky) and spectral illuminance during a day-night match (natural afternoon light, through dusk to night under floodlights) from Lord's Cricket Ground (London, UK). The luminance contrast of the ball relative to the background was calculated for each combination of ball, time of day, and background surface.

RESULTS

Old red and old pink balls may offer little or no contrast against the grass, pitch and crowd. New pink balls can also be of low contrast against the crowd at dusk, as can pink and white balls (of any age) against the sky at dusk.

CONCLUSIONS

Reports of difficulties with visibility of the pink ball are supported by our data. However, our modelling also shows that difficulties with visibility may also be expected under certain circumstances for red and white balls. The variable conditions in a cricket ground and the changing colour of an ageing ball make maintaining good visibility of the ball a challenge when playing day-night matches.

Measurement of individual color space using a luminous vector field

This study is intended to measure the geometry of the observer's color space when viewing a computer screen and to define individual variations from these data. A CIE photometric standard observer assumes that the eye's spectral efficiency function is constant, and photometry measurements correspond to vectors with fixed directions. By definition, the standard observer decomposes color space into planar surfaces of constant luminance. Using heterochromatic photometry with a minimum motion stimulus, we systematically measure the direction of luminous vectors for many observers and many color points. During the measurement process, the background and stimulus modulation averages are fixed to the given points to ensure that the observer is in a fixed adaptation mode. Our measurements result in a vector field or set of vectors (x,v), where x is the point's color space position, and v is the observer's luminosity vector. To estimate surfaces from vector fields, two mathematical hypotheses were used: (1) that surfaces are quadratic or, equivalently, that the vector field model is affine, and (2) that the metric of surfaces is proportional to a visual origin. Across 24 observers, we found that vector fields are convergent and the corresponding surfaces are hyperbolic. The equation of the surface in the display's color space coordinate system, and in particular the axis of symmetry, varied systematically from individual to individual. A hyperbolic geometry is compatible with studies that emphasize a modification of the photometric vector with changing adaptations.

Beyond Rehabilitation of Acuity, Ocular Alignment, and Binocularity in Infantile Strabismus

Infantile strabismus impairs the perception of all attributes of the visual scene. High spatial frequency components are no longer visible, leading to amblyopia. Binocularity is altered, leading to the loss of stereopsis. Spatial perception is impaired as well as detection of vertical orientation, the fastest movements, directions of movement, the highest contrasts and colors. Infantile strabismus also affects other vision-dependent processes such as control of postural stability. But presently, rehabilitative therapies for infantile strabismus by ophthalmologists, orthoptists and optometrists are restricted to preventing or curing amblyopia of the deviated eye, aligning the eyes and, whenever possible, preserving or restoring binocular vision during the critical period of development, i.e., before ~10 years of age. All the other impairments are thus ignored; whether they may recover after strabismus treatment even remains unknown. We argue here that medical and paramedical professionals may extend their present treatments of the perceptual losses associated with infantile strabismus. This hypothesis is based on findings from fundamental research on visual system organization of higher mammals in particular at the cortical level. In strabismic subjects (as in normal-seeing ones), information about all of the visual attributes converge, interact and are thus inter-dependent at multiple levels of encoding ranging from the single neuron to neuronal assemblies in visual cortex. Thus if the perception of one attribute is restored this may help to rehabilitate the perception of other attributes. Concomitantly, vision-dependent processes may also improve. This could occur spontaneously, but still should be assessed and validated. If not, medical and paramedical staff, in collaboration with neuroscientists, will have to break new ground in the field of therapies to help reorganize brain circuitry and promote more comprehensive functional recovery. Findings from fundamental research studies in both young and adult patients already support our hypothesis and are reviewed here. For example, presenting different contrasts to each eye of a strabismic patient during training sessions facilitates recovery of acuity in the amblyopic eye as well as of 3D perception. Recent data also demonstrate that visual recoveries in strabismic subjects improve postural stability. These findings form the basis for a roadmap for future research and clinical development to extend presently applied rehabilitative therapies for infantile strabismus.

Direction in the color plane as a factor in chromatic flicker and chromatic motion

A percept of motion results when a chromatic grating, formed from a spatial alternation between two isoluminant hues, drifts across the visual field. With hue pairs chosen to be equally subjectively dissimilar, the motion is greater for alternation along some directions in color space (orange/blue) than others (green/purple), suggesting a specific interaction between the (L-M) and S(0) chromatic opponent channels. This phenomenon was explored systematically by choosing 24 pairs of hues across the color circle and using the method of paired comparisons to scale their movement-inducing contrast. The flicker-inducing contrast observed from rapid alternation between the pairs was measured in the same way. Both phenomena consistently drew upon both chromatic channels, though in different proportions, as if chromatic and temporal variation information are multiplexed along motion-processing pathways. Border-distinctness data were also collected to isolate the (L-M) channel.

The perception of motion in chromatic stimuli

The issue of whether there is a motion mechanism sensitive to purely chromatic stimuli has been pertinent for the past 30 or more years. The aim of this review is to examine why such different conclusions have been drawn in the literature and to reach some reconciliation. The review critically examines the behavioral evidence and concludes that there is a purely chromatic motion mechanism but that it is limited to the fovea. Examination of motion performance for chromatic and luminance stimuli provides convincing evidence that there are at least two different mechanisms for the two kinds of stimuli. The authors further argue that the chromatic mechanism may be at a particular disadvantage when the integration of multiple local motion signals is required. Finally, the authors present a descriptive model that may go some way toward explaining the reasons for the differences in collected data outlined in this article.

Characterization of a novel form of X-linked incomplete achromatopsia

X-linked incomplete achromatopsia (XIA), also called blue-cone monochromacy (BCM), is a rare cone disorder that most commonly results either from one of two conditions. The first condition is a deletion of the locus control region (LCR) which is a critical DNA element that lies upstream of the L and M photopigment gene array on the X-chromosome and is necessary for expression of the photopigment genes. The second condition is an inactivating point mutation within the coding sequence of the remaining photopigment gene in an array from which all but one gene has been deleted. Many previous studies have concluded that affected individuals either have only rods and S-cones (Blackwell & Blackwell, 1957, 1961; Daw & Enoch, 1973; Hess et al., 1989) or have rods, S-cones, and another cone type that contains the rod pigment (Pokorny et al., 1970; Alpern et al., 1971). However, Smith et al. (1983) described individuals with XIA who had residual L-cone function. Here we report results for a subject with XIA who appears to have residual M-cone function. Genetic analysis revealed that he had apparently normal genes for M-cone photopigment thus leaving open the possibility that he has a contribution to vision based on expression of these genes at a very low level.

Technique to investigate the temporal phase shift between L- and M-cone inputs to the luminance mechanism

We describe a technique to estimate the intrinsic phase shift between long-wavelength-cone (L-cone) and middle-wavelength-cone (M-cone) signals in the luminance mechanism with minimal contamination by chromatic mechanism(s). The technique can also estimate, simultaneously with the phase shift, the weight ratio of L and M cones for the luminance mechanism. We measured motion identification thresholds for a 1.0 cycle/deg, 12.0-Hz sinusoidal grating representing different vector directions in L- and M-cone contrast space. The physical phase of the L- and M-cone signals was varied over a broad range between -150 deg and +150 deg to investigate the effect on the threshold contours. The slope of the threshold contour in cone contrast space varied as a function of the physical phase. Estimates of the intrinsic phase shift between L and M cones are based on the change in slope of the threshold contour. The estimates are consistent with previous reports and show that whereas the L-cone signal lags behind the M-cone signal by approximately 35 deg for an orange background, the M-cone signal lags behind the L-cone signal by approximately 8 deg for a green background.

Perceptual motion standstill in rapidly moving chromatic displays

In motion standstill, a quickly moving object appears to stand still, and its details are clearly visible. It is proposed that motion standstill can occur when the spatiotemporal resolution of the shape and color systems exceeds that of the motion systems. For moving red-green gratings, the first- and second-order motion systems fail when the grating is isoluminant. The third-order motion system fails when the green/red saturation ratio produces isosalience (equal distinctiveness of red and green). When a variety of high-contrast red-green gratings, with different spatial frequencies and speeds, were made isoluminant and isosalient, the perception of motion standstill was so complete that motion direction judgments were at chance levels. Speed ratings also indicated that, within a narrow range of luminance contrasts and green/red saturation ratios, moving stimuli were perceived as absolutely motionless. The results provide further evidence that isoluminant color motion is perceived only by the third-order motion system, and they have profound implications for the nature of shape and color perception.

The mechanism of isoluminant chromatic motion perception

An isoluminant chromatic display is a color display in which the component colors have been so carefully equated in luminance that they stimulate only color-sensitive perceptual mechanisms and not luminance-sensitive mechanisms. The nature of the mechanism by which isoluminant chromatic motion is perceived is an important issue because color and motion processing historically have been associated with different neural pathways. Here we show that isoluminant chromatic motion (i) fails a pedestal test, (ii) has a temporal tuning function that declines to half-amplitude at 3-6 Hz, and (iii) is perceived equally well when the entire motion sequence is presented monocularly (entire motion sequence to one eye) versus interocularly (the frames of motion sequence alternate between eyes so that neither eye individually could perceive motion). These three characteristics indicate that chromatic motion is detected by the third-order motion system. Based on this theory, it was possible to take a moving isoluminant red-green grating and, by simply increasing the chromatic contrast of the green component, to generate the full gamut of motion percepts, from compelling smooth motion to motion standstill. The perception of motion standstill when the third-order mechanism is nullified indicates that there is no other motion computation available for purely chromatic motion. It follows that isoluminant chromatic motion is not computed by specialized chromatic motion mechanisms within a color pathway but by the third-order motion system at a brain level where binocular inputs of form, color, depth, and texture are simultaneously available and where selective attention can exert a major influence.

Comparison of color and luminance contrast: apples versus oranges?

Using a spatial, forced-choice, matching protocol, we have measured observers' ability to equate the contrasts of sinusoidal gratings which vary along differing directions in a 3-dimensional color space. In a given experiment, the observer obtained a perceptual match between the contrasts of two gratings whose chromaticities or luminances varied along differing chromatic directions which were selected from among five axes: an achromatic luminance axis (lum), an isoluminant axis where only S-cone activation varied (S-axis), an isoluminant axis where L- and M-cone activation varied in a complementary manner (LM-axis), an axis where only L-cone activation varied (L-axis), and an axis where only M-cone activation varied (M-axis). Even though these chromatic axes were chosen to activate independent mechanisms involved in the early stages of spatiochromatic visual processing, and despite the distinctly differing appearance of patterns from variations along differing directions, we find that observers can reliably make such pairwise contrast matches. Furthermore there is reasonable consistency of matching contrasts among observers and the pairwise contrast matches exhibit the properties of homogeneity and transitivity. This observed homogeneity and transitivity allows, for each color direction, the specification of a single scaling factor which relates perceptual contrast to physical contrast.

Global motion cues and the chromatic system

The capacity of the isolated chromatic system to perceive global motion was tested in a 40-deg visual field by use of random-dot kinematograms. The method of equivalent cone contrasts was used to directly compare the chromatic and the achromatic systems. The minimum number of dots necessary to correctly identify the motion direction was on the order of 20% for the isochromatic conditions, whereas thresholds were rarely obtained in the chromatic conditions. For both the isochromatic and the chromatic conditions, the central visual field was the most sensitive area, whereas the periphery was slightly less sensitive. This study suggests that the chromatic system does not efficiently integrate local motion cues to generate a global motion percept.

Adaptation and the color statistics of natural images

Color perception depends profoundly on adaptation processes that adjust sensitivity in response to the prevailing pattern of stimulation. We examined how color sensitivity and appearance might be influenced by adaptation to the color distributions characteristic of natural images. Color distributions were measured for natural scenes by sampling an array of locations within each scene with a spectroradiometer, or by recording each scene with a digital camera successively through 31 interference filters. The images were used to reconstruct the L, M and S cone excitation at each spatial location, and the contrasts along three post-receptoral axes [L + M, L - M or S - (L + M)]. Individual scenes varied substantially in their mean chromaticity and luminance, in the principal color-luminance axes of their distributions, and in the range of contrasts in their distributions. Chromatic contrasts were biased along a relatively narrow range of bluish to yellowish-green angles, lying roughly between the S - (L + M) axis (which was more characteristic of scenes with lush vegetation and little sky) and a unique blue-yellow axis (which was more typical of arid scenes). For many scenes L - M and S - (L + M) signals were highly correlated, with weaker correlations between luminance and chromaticity. We use a two-stage model (von Kries scaling followed by decorrelation) to show how the appearance of colors may be altered by light adaptation to the mean of the distributions and by contrast adaptation to the contrast range and principal axes of the distributions; and we show that such adjustments are qualitatively consistent with empirical measurements of asymmetric color matches obtained after adaptation to successive random samples drawn from natural distributions of chromaticities and lightnesses. Such adaptation effects define the natural range of operating states of the visual system.