Abstract: Computer Vision Problems are usually ill-posed. Constraining de gamut of possible solutions is then a necessary step. Many constrains for different problems have been developed during years. In this paper, we present a different way of constraining some of these problems: the use of color names. In particular, we will focus on segmentation, representation ans constancy.

Abstract: In two previous experiments [Parraga et al, 2009 J. of Im. Sci. and Tech 53(3) 031106; Benavente et al,2009 Perception 38 ECVP Supplement, 36] the boundaries of basic colour categories were measured.
In the first experiment, samples were presented in isolation (ie on a dark background) and boundaries were measured using a yes/no paradigm. In the second, subjects adjusted the chromaticity of a sample presented on a random Mondrian background to find the boundary between pairs of adjacent colours.
Results from these experiments showed significant dierences but it was not possible to conclude whether this discrepancy was due to the absence/presence of a colourful background or to the dierences in the paradigms used. In this work, we settle this question by repeating the first experiment (ie samples presented on a dark background) using the second paradigm. A comparison of results shows that
although boundary locations are very similar, boundaries measured in context are significantly dierent(more diuse) than those measured in isolation (confirmed by a Student’s t-test analysis on the subject’s answers statistical distributions). In addition, we completed the mapping of colour name space by measuring the boundaries between chromatic colours and the achromatic centre. With these results we completed our parametric fuzzy-sets model of colour naming space.

Abstract: In a previous work (X. Otazu, M. Vanrell, & C. A. Párraga, 2008b), we showed how several brightness induction effects can be predicted using a simple multiresolution wavelet model (BIWaM). Here we present a new model for chromatic induction processes (termed Chromatic Induction Wavelet Model or CIWaM), which is also implemented on a multiresolution framework and based on similar assumptions related to the spatial frequency and the contrast surround energy of the stimulus. The CIWaM can be interpreted as a very simple extension of the BIWaM to the chromatic channels, which in our case are defined in the MacLeod-Boynton (lsY) color space. This new model allows us to unify both chromatic assimilation and chromatic contrast effects in a single mathematical formulation. The predictions of the CIWaM were tested by means of several color and brightness induction experiments, which showed an acceptable agreement between model predictions and psychophysical data.

Abstract: The estimation of the illuminant of a scene from a digital image has been the goal of a large amount of research in computer vision. Color constancy algorithms have dealt with this problem by defining different heuristics to select a unique solution from within the feasible set. The performance of these algorithms has shown that there is still a long way to go to globally solve this problem as a preliminary step in computer vision. In general, performance evaluation has been done by comparing the angular error between the estimated chromaticity and the chromaticity of a canonical illuminant, which is highly dependent on the image dataset. Recently, some workers have used high-level constraints to estimate illuminants; in this case selection is based on increasing the performance on the subsequent steps of the systems. In this paper we propose a new performance measure, the perceptual angular error. It evaluates the performance of a color constancy algorithm according to the perceptual preferences of humans, or naturalness (instead of the actual optimal solution) and is independent of the visual task. We show the results of a new psychophysical experiment comparing solutions from three different color constancy algorithms. Our results show that in more than a half of the judgments the preferred solution is not the one closest to the optimal solution. Our experiments were performed on a new dataset of images acquired with a calibrated camera with an attached neutral grey sphere, which better copes with the illuminant variations of the scene.

Abstract: In a previous experiment [Parraga et al, 2009 Journal of Imaging Science and Technology 53(3)] the boundaries between basic colour categories were measured by asking subjects to categorize colour samples presented in isolation (ie on a dark background) using a YES/NO paradigm. Results showed that some boundaries (eg green – blue) were very diffuse and the subjects' answers presented bimodal distributions, which were attributed to the emergence of non-basic categories in those regions (eg turquoise). To confirm these results we performed a new experiment focussed on the boundaries where bimodal distributions were more evident. In this new experiment rectangular colour samples were presented surrounded by random colour patches to simulate contextual conditions on a calibrated CRT monitor. The names of two neighbouring colours were shown at the bottom of the screen and subjects selected the boundary between these colours by controlling the chromaticity of the central patch, sliding it across these categories' frontier. Results show that in this new experimental paradigm, the formerly uncertain inter-colour category boundaries are better defined and the dispersions (ie the bimodal distributions) that occurred in the previous experiment disappear. These results may provide further support to Berlin and Kay's basic colour terms theory.

Abstract: Generally the bag-of-words based image representation follows a bottom-up paradigm. The subsequent stages of the process: feature detection, feature description, vocabulary construction and image representation are performed independent of the intentioned object classes to be detected. In such a framework, combining multiple cues such as shape and color often provides below-expected results. This paper presents a novel method for recognizing object categories when using multiple cues by separating the shape and color cue. Color is used to guide attention by means of a top-down category-specific attention map. The color attention map is then further deployed to modulate the shape features by taking more features from regions within an image that are likely to contain an object instance. This procedure leads to a category-specific image histogram representation for each category. Furthermore, we argue that the method combines the advantages of both early and late fusion. We compare our approach with existing methods that combine color and shape cues on three data sets containing varied importance of both cues, namely, Soccer ( color predominance), Flower (color and shape parity), and PASCAL VOC Challenge 2007 (shape predominance). The experiments clearly demonstrate that in all three data sets our proposed framework significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods for combining color and shape information.