Chapter 4

Color in Image and Video

 Outline

❑ Light and Spectra

❑ Color Space
o RGB color space

o YUV color space

o YIQ color space

o CMY/CMYK color space

o YCbCr color space

❑ Transformation from RGB to CMY

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 Light and Spectra
▪ In 1672, Isaac Newton discovered

that white light could be split into

many colors by a prism.

▪ The colors produced by light passing

through prism are arranged in precise

array or spectrum.

▪ The colors spectral signature is

identified by its wavelength.

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 Light and Spectra
▪ Visible light is an electromagnetic wave in the 400nm-700nm range
(Blue~400nm, Red~700nm, Green~500nm).
▪ Most light we see is not one wavelength; it is a combination of many
wavelengths.
▪ For Example purple is a mixture of red and violet.
▪ 1nm=10-9m.
The Color of Objects
▪ Here we consider the color of an object illuminated by white light.
▪ Color is produced by the absorption of selected wavelengths of light by an
object.
▪ Objects can be thought of as absorbing all colors except the colors of their
appearance, which are reflected back.
▪ A blue object illuminated by white light absorbs most of the wavelengths except
those corresponding to blue light.
▪ These blue wavelengths are reflected by the object.
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 Color Spaces

▪ Color space specifies how color information is represented. It is also called

color model.

▪ Any color could be described in a three dimensional graph, called a color

space.

▪ Mathematically the axis can be tilted (sloped) or moved in different

directions to change the way the space is described, without changing the
actual colors.

▪ The values along an axis can be linear or non-linear.

▪ This gives a variety of ways to describe colors that have an impact on the
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way we process a color image.
 Color Spaces

▪ There are different ways of representing color. Some of these

are:
oRGB color space
oYUV color space
oYIQ color space
oCMY/CMYK color space
oYCbCr color space

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 RGB Color Space
▪ RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue.

▪ RGB color space expresses/defines color as a mixture of three primary colors:

o Red
o Green
o Blue

▪ Absence of all colors create black and presence of the three colors form white.

▪ These colors are called additive colors.

▪ Pure black (0,0,0).

▪ Pure white (255,255,255) all other colors are produced by varying the intensity of
these three primaries and mixing the colors.
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 RGB Color Space

▪ These colors are called additive colors since they add

together the way light adds to make colors, and is a natural

color space to use with video displays.

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 CYM and CYMK Color Space
▪ The subtractive color system reproduces colors by subtracting some
wavelengths of light from white.

▪ The three subtractive color primaries are cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMY).

▪ If none of these colors is present, the color produced is white because nothing
has been subtracted from the white light.

▪ If all the colors are present at their maximum amounts, the color produced is
black because all of the light has been subtracted from the white light.

▪ A color model used with printers and other peripherals.

▪ Three primary colors, cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y), are used to
reproduce all colors.
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 CYM and CYMK Color Space

▪ The three colors together absorb all the light that strikes it, appearing
black (as contrasted to RGB where the three colors together made
white).

▪ “Nothing” on the paper is white (as contrasted to RGB where nothing was
black).

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CMY Color Model (Subtractive Color)

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 Transformation from RGB to CMY

▪ Simplest model we can invent to specify what ink density to lay down on
paper, to make a certain desired RGB color: Then the inverse transform
is:

▪ Undercolor Removal: CMYK System

▪ Undercolor removal: Sharper and cheaper printer colors: calculate that

part of the CMY mix that would be black, remove it from the color
proportions, and add it back as real black.

▪ The new specification of inks is thus: K stands for black.

Color combinations
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 Transformation from RGB to CMY

▪ Simplest model we can invent to specify what ink density to lay down on
paper, to make a certain desired RGB color: Then the inverse transform
is:

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▪ Color combinations that result from combining primary colors available in

the two situations, additive color and subtractive.

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 YUV Color Model
▪ Established in 1982 to build digital video standard. Video is represented by a
sequence of fields (odd and even lines).

▪ Two fields make a frame. Works in PAL (50 fields/sec) or NTSC (60 fields/sec).

▪ The luminance (brightness), Y, is retained separately from the chrominance

(color).

▪ The Y component determines the brightness of the color (referred to as

luminance or luma), while the U and V components determine the color itself (it
is called chroma).

▪ U is the axis from blue to yellow and V is the axis from magenta to cyan.

▪ Y ranges from 0 to 1 (or 0 to 255 in digital formats), while U and V range from -
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0.5 to 0.5 (or -128 to 127 in signed digital form, or 0 to 255 in unsigned form).
YUV Color Model

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 YIQ Color Model
▪ YIQ is used in color TV broadcasting, it is downward compatible with Black and White TV.

▪ The YIQ color space is commonly used in North American television systems.

▪ Note that if the chrominance is ignored, the result is a “black and white” picture.

▪ I and Q are a rotated version of U and V. Y in YIQ is the same as in YUV; U and V are
rotated by 33 degree.

▪ Y (luminance).

▪ I is red-orange axis,

▪ Q is roughly orthogonal to I. Eye is most sensitive to Y (luminance), next to I, next to Q.

▪ YIQ is intended to take advantage of human color response characteristics. Eye is more
sensitive to (I) than in (Q).

▪ Therefore less bandwidth is required for Q than for I. NTSC limits I to 1.5 MHZ and Q to
0.6 MHZ. Y is assigned higher bandwidth, 4MHZ.
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YIQ Color Model

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 YCbCr
▪ This is similar to YUV.

▪ This color space is closely related to the YUV space, but with the coordinates shifted to
allow all positive valued coefficients.

▪ The luminance (brightness), Y, is retained separately from the chrominance (color).

▪ During development and testing of JPEG, it became apparent that chrominance sub
sampling in this space allowed a much better compression than simply compressing RGB
or CYM.

▪ Sub sampling means that only one half or one quarter as much detail is retained for the
color as for the brightness.

▪ It is used in MPEG and JPEG compressions.

▪ Y-Luma component
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 Summary of Color
▪ Color images are encoded as (R,G,B) integer triplet values.

▪ These triplets encode how much the corresponding phosphor should be excited

in devices such as a monitor.

▪ Three common systems of encoding in video are RGB, YIQ, and YcrCb(YUV).

▪ Besides the hardware-oriented color models (i.e., RGB, CMY, YIQ, YUV), HSB

(Hue, Saturation, and Brightness, e.g., used in Photoshop) and HLS (Hue,

Lightness, and Saturation) are also commonly used.

▪ YIQ uses properties of the human eye to prioritize information. Y is the black

and white (luminance) image; I and Q are the color (chrominance) images. YUV
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