Using a Behavioral Match-to-Sample Method to Evaluate Color Vision Deficiency Simulation Methods

Color vision deficiency (CVD) simulation methods are used both to simulate color vision of color-deficient people and as input for image enhancement methods for the color-deficient. However, a broad survey comparing different simulation methods has yet been left undone. We propose a methodology best known from behavioral science to evaluate, compare and rank different simulation methods. By using accuracy and response time data from match-to-sample experiments, we can assess behavioral performances of simulation methods. We show firstly that the match-to-sample paradigm is well suited to show performance differences of the observer groups. Secondly, we show that the CVD simulation methods do indeed simulate the desired CVD to some degree. And thirdly, we show that the proposed methodology can be used to rank different simulation methods. Our results indicate that the simulation method proposed by Brettel et al. performs best among the tested simulation methods.