Color Reproduciotn based on Memory Color and Its Application for Image Quality Improvement

This paper describes a color reproduction method to improve the white-balance of a color image when no information is provided on an illuminant color in a scene and the color characteristics of the color imaging device that took the scene. Based on the assumption that human beings use colors of specific objects that we have memory colors as a key to recognize colors in an image, the illuminant color and object colors in a scene are estimated from color information of specific objects in the image. In this study, a human face is used as one of the most important objects for which we have memory colors. Color correction of the image is carried out by transposing the estimated illuminant color to an illuminant color that improves the white-balance. The illuminant color for the white-balance is determined by introducing the concept that incomplete chromatic adaptation in human color vision produces the desired results. Subjective experiments highlight the validity of the proposed method.