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Study of RGB Color Classification Using Fuzzy

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Study of RGB Color Classification Using Fuzzy Logic

Mohd Alif Syami Bin Azmi1, Nazrul Bin Mazli1, Yusman Yusof2, Mohd Fadzil Hj Abu Hassan2
1

Industrial Automation and Robotics Technology, Industrial Automation Section, Universiti Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
France Institute, Section 14 Jalan Teras Jernang, 43650 Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor.
Tel: +603 8926 2022 Fax: +603 8925 8845
Email: cymophanex2@hotmail.com, Asyahmi87@yahoo.com
2

Industrial Automation Section

Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia France Institute
43650 Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor.
Tel: +603 8926 2022 Fax: +603 8925 8845
Email: yusman@mfi.unikl.edu.my, fadzil@mfi.unikl.edu.my

Abstract
Color has been a great help in identifying objects for
many years. Color is the byproduct of the spectrum of
light, as it is reflected or absorbed, as received by the
human eye and processed by the human brain. In day to
day practice, we will most likely use three models: HSV,
CMYK and RGB. In this project, the RGB model will be
focused. The RGB color model combines Red, Green, and
Blue light in various ways to reproduce a broad array of
colors. The RGB color of an object will be classified by
using Fuzzy logic according to the data given by the
analog sensor. This project aims in providing a better
understanding on applying Fuzzy Logic in solving real
life application for engineering technology students.
Experiments will be conducted and the results will be
used to demonstrate the color classification using Fuzzy
Logic.

Key Words:

Fuzzy Logic, RGB color sensing,

Sensor.

1. Introduction
Color has been a great help in identifying objects for
many years. The process of color classification involves
extraction of useful information concerning the spectral
properties of object surfaces and discovering the best
match from a set of known descriptions or class models to
implement the recognition task [1]. Furthermore, most
manufacturers prefer color classification systems that
provide repeatable and reliable operation, as opposed to
human inspection, which has a high margin of error due

to distraction, illness and other factors that increase the

rate of failure during prolonged working hours.
To overcome such difficulties, a RGB color
classification system is introduced. This system is widely
used in the industrial manufacturing and robotics, as it
can reduce dependency on manpower and hence increase
production.

2. Primary Colors
Colors are actually light waves. Photographs,
magazines and other objects of nature such as an orange;
create color by subtracting or absorbing certain
wavelengths of color while reflecting other wavelengths
back to the viewer. This phenomenon is called subtractive
color [2]. When light from the sun hits an object such as
an orange, it absorbs all the colors except for orange. A
white object refracted all colors. Therefore, white is really
all the colors of the spectrum. Whereas something
appears black to us because the all colors are absorbed
and nothing is refracted. The color spectrum is made up
of varying frequencies and wavelengths. Each color has
its own designated space within the spectrum.
The choice of primary colors is related to the
physiology of the human eye. If the visible portion of the
light spectrum is divided into thirds, the predominant
colors are Red, Green and Blue. The RGB color model
is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue
light are added together in various ways to reproduce a
broad array of colors. The main purpose of the RGB color
model is for the sensing, representation, and display of
images in electronic systems, such as televisions and
computers [3].

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The initial LEDs voltage readings taken before doing the
experiment are:
Red LED = 4.25V
Green LED = 4.28V
Blue LED = 4.23V

Picture taken from

journal of computers,
vol. 4, no. 7, July 2009

Figure 1: Pyramid of color

Additive color mixing occurs when two or three
beams of differently color light combine. It has been
found that mixing just three additive primary colors; Red,
Green and Blue, can produce the majority of colors. In
general, a color can be described by certain quantities,
called the tri-stimulus values, r for the red component, g
for the green component, and b for the blue component
[4], as follows:
Color = r + g + b

3. System Overview
A low cost sensor, Light-Dependent Resistors (LDR)
is used to determine the lux levels reflected from an
object. The sensor is basically a resistor that changes its
resistive value (in ohms ) depending on how much light
is shining onto the squiggly surface. Three RGB color
LEDs will be used and object whose color is required to
be detected should be perpendicularly placed in front of
the system, hence the light rays reflected from the object
will fall on the single LDR. The LEDs will be triggered in
sequence for a short time.

Below is the Pseudo code to collect data from LDR.

Delay of 50ms is needed to make sure the amount of light
from the LED is at acceptable point to be captured by
LDR.
Turn on red LED
delay 50ms
record sensor reading R
turn off red LED
Turn on green LED
delay 50ms
record sensor reading G
turn off green LED
Turn on blue LED
delay 50ms
record sensor reading B
turn off blue LED

A fuzzy logic inference engine is highly important in

this color classification system. The MATLAB Fuzzy
Logic Toolbox is used in this study as the centerpiece of
the system in classifying colors and to display the results.
The microcontroller will read the data from the color
sensor and transfer into PC based MATLAB to classify
the color with various brightness levels into three color
classes: Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) colors and the
decision making process will be based on Fuzzy Logic.
Figure 3 shows the system setup.

Figure 3: Fuzzy Logic Color classification system

Figure 2: Color sensor design
The 8-bit AVR Butterfly microcontroller board is
used as the preprocessor to capture data. One of the onboard 8-bit analog inputs is connected to the LDR and
used to convert the sensor voltage outputs to digital form.
Three separate discrete outputs are used to trigger the
RGB LEDs by sequence and the converted digital sensor
signals are transferred to PC via serial communication.

4. Fuzzy Logic Inference Engine

A fuzzy logic inference engine, build upon fuzzy set
theory will be developed to classify the color based on the
sensor inputs. These inputs, operational laws and outputs
will be expressed inside the engine in linguistic terms
instead of the traditionally used mathematical equations.
Figure 4 shows the block diagram of the inference engine
for the used in color classification.

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Table 1: Fuzzy Logic rules

RULE BASE

FUZZIFICATION

DECISION
MAKING

R G B

DEFUZZIFICATION

Red or Green or Blue

Figure 4: Block diagram of the system

5. Fuzzification
Fuzzification is the process of mapping crisp inputs to
fuzzy membership functions. In fuzzy logic, it is
important to distinguish not only which membership
functions a variable belong to, but also the relative degree
to which it is a member. Figure 5 shows the input crisp
variable for the color sensor. In Figure 5, the fuzzy

membership function spans from a range of values

and is overlapped. Three set of membership values
are defined for the sensor inputs for the Red, Green
and Blue colors: LOW, MEDIUM, and
HIGH.

7. Defuzzification
The defuzzification, calculation of the crisp output is
where the output is generated based on the inputs and the
rule base. In this case, the output is the color indicator of
itself i.e Red or Green or Blue as shown in Figure 5. In
this system, we are using Sugeno inference. It is a fuzzy
set with a membership function that is unity at a single
particular point on the universe of discourse and zero
everywhere else [5].
Table 2: The output range to classify color

Figure 5: RGB color input membership functions

6. Inference Rule Definition

The fuzzy rules specify the relationship between the
input fuzzy membership sets and the output fuzzy
membership values. It is in these rules; one builds the
intuition of the controller. Table 1 shows the 15 rules
used for the color classification:

Because the fuzzy controller is modular, we begin by

testing each of the modules separately. Fuzzification
parameters are adjusted so that the sensor data are
captured in the set of values contained in the fuzzy input
variables. The rules are adjusted and modified so that
fuzzy output variables properly describe what should be
the result. Lastly, the defuzzification parameters are tuned
in order to produce the correct and consistent crisp
output.

8. Experimental Result and Discussion

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There are 18 levels of brightness sample color were
tested for each colors shown in Figure 6.

l
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31/010

Code

Table 3 to 5 shows the output results of Fuzzy System.

Overall the system is able to classify the color with
certain brightness level. But when the color is too dark
and to bright the fuzzy controller is not able to produce a
correct output. In order to overcome this problem, the
result will be further analyzed and the fuzzy system will
be tune to detect these colors.
Table 3: Testing result on Red surface for different
brightness level
Leve
l

7/8
7/7
7/6
7/5
7/4
7/3
7/2
7/1
7/01
7/02
7/03
7/04
7/05
7/06
7/07
7/08
7/09
7/01
0

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
14
15
16
17
18
19

RED
Reading
Vol
Valu
t
e
3.77
238
3.87
246
4.03
255
4.14
261
4.16
263
4.15
263
4.18
264
4.15
263
4.23
267
4.23
267
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
-

GREEN
Reading
Vol
Valu
t
e
2.45
154
1.90
119
2.44
154
2.13
133
2.19
137
2.35
148
2.52
158
2.43
153
3.00
189
2.85
179
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
-

BLUE
Reading
Vol
Valu
t
e
2.89
182
2.68
169
2.97
187
2.50
157
2.66
167
2.06
128
2.63
166
2.60
164
3.06
193
3.18
201
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
-

RESULT
Valu
e
80.9
82.0
81.1
82.0
82.0
82.0
82.0
82.0
82.0
82.0
-

Colo
r
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

Table 4: Test result on Green surface for different

brightness level
Code

Leve

RED

GREEN

BLUE

Reading
Volt
Valu
e
2.90
181
3.26
205
3.37
213
3.54
224
3.41
216
3.57
225
3.70
234
3.65
230
3.57
225
3.76
238
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
-

Reading
Vol
Valu
t
e
2.60
162
2.43
153
2.57
161
2.36
148
2.40
152
2.84
178
2.68
169
2.64
166
2.68
169
2.88
182
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
-

Valu
e
49.0
49.0
49.0
49.0
49.0
49.0
49.0
49.0
49.0
49.0
-

Color
Green
Green
Green
Green
Green
Green
Green
Green
Green
Green
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

Table 5: Testing result on Blue surface for different

brightness level

Figure 6: RGB Color Wheel

Code

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
14
15
16
17
18
19

Reading
Vol
Valu
t
e
2.27
142
3.29
201
3.15
198
3.09
195
3.09
195
3.24
204
3.25
204
2.94
185
3.16
200
3.10
196
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
-

RESULT

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19/7
19/6
19/5
19/4
19/3
19/2
19/1
19/01
19/02
19/03
19/04
19/05
19/06
19/07
19/08
19/09
19/01
0

Leve
l
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
14
15
16
17
18
19

RED
Reading
Vol
Valu
t
e
2.47
155
2.30
144
2.26
142
1.55
97
2.00
125
2.08
130
2.77
174
2.21
139
3.19
201
3.37
213
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
-

GREEN
Reading
Vol
Valu
t
e
2.35
147
1.78
111
2.00
125
1.56
97
2.28
143
2.20
138
2.57
162
2.35
148
2.62
165
2.71
170
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
-

BLUE
Reading
Vol
Valu
t
e
2.70
170
2.82
177
2.97
188
2.49
156
3.23
203
3.33
209
3.40
214
3.32
209
3.59
226
3.67
232
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
-

RESULT
Valu
e
0.5
0.5
16.0
16.0
16.0
16.0
16.0
16.0
16.0
19.2
-

9. Conclusion and Future works

Fuzzy logic based systems are popular and proven to
be successfully implemented in diversified areas and most
colleges and universities offering fuzzy logic courses.
This paper has described the development of a low-cost
fuzzy logic system used in solving RGB color
classification. The system can be use for educational
purposes to enables students understand fully logic
algorithm in solving problems.
In the next development, the system will be enhanced
to by implementing the following:
Further tuning to classify and detect a slightly
different Red, Green and Blue color.
The inference engine will be written using highlevel programming language and programmed

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Color
Blue
Blue
Blue
Blue
Blue
Blue
Blue
Blue
Blue
Blue
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

ETERD10 Proceeding 2010

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directly into a microcontroller replacing the need
of MATLAB Fuzzy Logic Toolbox. These will
enables student to acquire hands-on experience on
developing Fuzzy Logic applications.

10. References
[1] Ferat Sahin, A Radial Basis Function Approach to a Color
Image Classification Problem in a Real Time Industrial
Application, 27 June 1997, Blacksburg, Virginia, page 1-16, 26
Feb 2006.
[2]
http://www.glassescrafter.com/information/how-eye-seescolor.html
[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB_color_model#cite_refRWGHunt_2-1
[4] Naotoshi Sugano, Shou Komatsuzaki et al., Fuzzy Set
Theoretical Analysis of Human Membership Values on the
Color Triangle.
[5] M. Negnevitsky, Artificial Intelligence, in A Guide to
Intelligent Systems, Second Edition, Pearson Education,
Edinburgh: Addison Wesley, 2005. pp. 112.

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