A statistical approach to economical camera‐based colorimetric comparison

A system is described that uses a low‐cost off the shelf camera and computing components, along with software developed at the Centre for Intelligent Monitoring Systems (CIMS), to provide an economical solution to colour matching problems. It is aimed primarily at applications in which small differences between the colours of objects need to be identified. In a prototype system, tests have so far yielded favourable results in comparison with existing quality assurance, which relies on the judgement of a human expert. Colour differences between samples at the limit of human perception are repeatably detected.