Mathematical Discontinuities in

CIEDE2000 Color Difference

Computations

Gaurav Sharma*, Wencheng Wu+,

Edul N. Dalal+, Mehmet U. Celik*
*University of Rochester

+Xerox Corporation

1
 Outline
Color Difference Equations
CIEDE2000 Computation
Sources of Discontinuity
Discontinuity Visualization
Discontinuity Magnitude Characterization
Maximum (reasonable) magnitude
Conclusions + workarounds
2
 Color Difference Equations
Quantitative evaluation of color differences
Main uses:
Quantitative color error evaluation
Algorithm/parameter optimization

3
 Color Difference Equations:
Desirable Attributes
Perceptual uniformity
Equal numerical differences correspond to equal
perceived differences
Mathematical properties:
Continuity and differentiability
- Taylor series/small-error approximation
- Gradient based optimization
Symmetry
- reference/sample distinction un-necessary
Correspondence to a distance metric
- Underlying uniform color space
4
 CIE 1976 CIELAB Color Space
Uniform color space
Based on ANLAB, in turn on Munsell
Transformation of 1931 CIEXYZ tristimulus
coordinates
Nonlinearity: Cube-root with linear end
segment

Transformation carefully designed

Continuous first derivatives [Pauli1976]

5
 CIELAB Based Color Difference
Fomulae
1976: E*ab Color difference
Euclidean distance betw. points in CIELAB space
E *ab = L *2 + a *2 + b *2 = L *2 + C *2 + H *2
L*
E L*
b*

a*
C* H
*

CMC and CIE 94 color difference Eqns.

Chroma/Hue dependent weights for L*, C*, H*
Greater uniformity w.r.t. experimental data
6
Retain continuity of first derivatives
 CIEDE2000
L*

a* Axis Scaling b*
E L

a* -> a a
H
Decomposition C

Hue, Chroma Dependent Weighting

Cross Term (blue hue nonlinearity)

CIEDE2000 Color Difference is discontinuous

7
 CIEDE2000 Hue & Hue
Weighting Functions

sample chroma values

hue angle difference
mean hue angle
mean chroma value (arithmetic)
8
 Mean Hue/Hue Difference
Computation
Mean: Bi-sector of smaller angle betw h1, h2
Difference: Smaller angle + direction gives sign
b*
1

h12
h
h1

h2 a

Discontinuous Operations
9
2
 Mean Hue Discontinuity
b*
h
12
1

a
/2

/2 h
2 13
3

180o discontinuity in mean hue

10
 Hue-difference Discontinuity
b*

h = /2
12

a
/2
h = +/2
13
/2
2
3

180o (Sign) discontinuity in hue difference

11
Discontinuity Characterization
Where does it occur ?

How big is it (magnitude) ?

12
 Discontinuity Locations
6-D Space of input values

Discontinuity for points 180o apart in hue

5-D manifold in 6-D space

13
 Discontinuity Locations
Discontinuity loci in plane
h2 = h1 + 180

h2
360

h2 = h1 180

180

0 h
1
0 180 360 14
Visualization

15
 Discontinuity Magnitude
Main contribution mean hue discontin. in

Minor contribution from hue diff. discontin.

Sign change of
Contributes through rotation term

16
 Discontinuity Magnitude
Bounds
CIEDE2000 intended for small color
differences
Colors under 5 units apart
b*
Discontinuity magnitude under 0.2374
- Non-negligible, not too large R1 = 2.5
143
o
1

Occurs for 143o hue sample

Increasing distance: sharp rise a*

R2 = 2.5

17
 Conclusions
CIEDE2000 color difference is a discontinuous
function
Discontinuity for colors 180o apart in hue
Discontinuity magnitude small in small error
practical applications
Under 0.238 for color under 5 units apart
Serious limitation for
Taylor series/small error approximations
Gradient based optimization

18
Potential workarounds/fixes
Use formula asymetrically
Major discontinuity due to mean hue
eliminated
Symmetrize if nesc by averaging color
differences
Discontin in Rotation term remains
Harder to fix
- Probably requires different functional format
and re-optimization of parameters

19
 Additional Information
Upcoming paper in Color Research and
Application (Feb 2005)
includes detailed algorithmic statement of
CIEDE2000 computation
Additional test data
- Several available implementations
+ Agreement over CIE draft test data, disagreement over
other data!!

20
Acknowledgements
Thanks for suggestions/comments to:
Mike Brill
Anonymous reviewers

21
Questions

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