Günter Wyszecki
Günter Wolfgang Wyszecki (November 08, 1925 – June 22, 1985) was a German-Canadian physicist
who made important contributions to the fields of colorimetry and color vision.[1]
Education and personal life
Wyszecki was born in Tilsit, East Prussia, Germany (today
Sovetsk, Russia). He attended the Technische Universität Berlin
where he was awarded a Dr.-Ing. degree, with a dissertation on
normal and anomalous trichromacy.[2] In 1953 he was awarded a
Fulbright Scholarship and for a year joined Deane B. Judd at the
Colorimetry and Photometry section of the U. S. National Bureau
of Standards in Washington DC. He was married to Ingeborg
Wyszecki, and had two children named Joana & Wolfgang. He
became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1961.
Günter Wyszecki
Career
In 1955 Wyszecki joined the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa where he became the leader
of its Optics Section in 1960 and Assistant Director of the Division of Physics in 1982, and where he
remained until his untimely death from leukemia. Wyszecki is best known for his scientific contributions
to and leadership in the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). He was chairman of its
Colorimetry Committee from 1963 to 1975, vice president of the organization from 1979 to 1983 and its
president from 1983 until his death. During this period the CIE made many important recommendations
in colorimetry, remaining valid today, such as 1 nm tables of the color-matching functions of the two CIE
standard observers and the standard illuminants A and D65, addition of integrating-sphere reflectance
factor measurement as a recommended measuring geometry, the 1964 (U*V*W*) and the 1976 CIELAB
and CIELUV uniform color space and color difference formulas, and others.
Metamerism: Wyszecki introduced the important concept of ‘metameric blacks,’ psychophysical
definitions of blacks with tristimulus values 0, 0, 0 that within limits can be added to a spectral
reflectance to form the various possible metamers (with an identical set of tristimulus values) under a
given light.[3] With Walter Stiles he also developed mathematical methods to calculate by various
methodologies the number of possible metamers for given chromaticities, peaking at the achromatic
colors.[4]
Wyszecki seven-field colorimeter: In 1965 Wyszecki developed the seven-field colorimeter with which an
observer can view with both eyes one or more of seven hexagonal fields, each with separately
controllable RGB sources achieved with filtered light, mixed in an integrating sphere.
Color matching and color-difference matching: David MacAdam's color-matching error ellipses of 1942
(1 observer) were extended in 1957 for 12 observers by Brown and in 1971 by Wyszecki and Fielder.[5]
The latter two investigations demonstrated the considerable variability by observer. The seven-field
colorimeter was also used for a novel color-difference matching experiment in which three fields were
displayed and the observer had to adjust the third field so that its brightness matched the brightness of
preselected colors with equal luminance in two fields and its chromaticity resulted in identical perceived
differences between the colors in the triangular arrangement.[6]
Heterochromatic brightness matching: Wyszecki and co-workers also added important experimental data
to the luminance of equally bright stimuli. Many chromatic stimuli, when compared to achromatic ones
of the same psychophysical brightness or lightness appear to be lighter or brighter, to be "glowing," an
effect known as the Helmholtz–Kohlrausch effect.[7]
Publications
Wyszecki authored or co-authored 86 scientific papers and 3 books. The first book, Farbsysteme was
published in Germany in 1960,[8] describing color order systems. He co-authored together with Deane
Judd the second and third editions of the latter's Color in Business, Science and Industry, the third edition
after the passing of Judd.[9][10] He was the lead author, together with Stiles, of the monumental Color
Science: Concepts and Methods, Quantitative Data and Formulae, with editions in 1967 and 1982.[11][12]
The second edition remains in print today as a highly important source of information in the field of color
science.
References
1. Robertson, Alan R. (August 1986). "Necrology of G. Wyszecki" (https://www.aic-color.org/res
ources/Documents/AIC_news03-86.pdf) (PDF). AIC Newsletter. No. 3. International Colour
Association. pp. 18–20. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20231129162342/https://ww
w.aic-color.org/resources/Documents/AIC_news03-86.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2023-
11-29.
2. G. Wyszecki, Valenzmetrische Untersuchung des Zusammenhanges zwischen normaler
und anomaler Trichromasie, Farbe 2 (1953) 39-45. Catalogue link (https://d-nb.info/4803610
53) in German National Library
3. Wyszecki, G. (1958). "Evaluation of metameric colors". Journal of the Optical Society of
America. 48 (7): 451–454. doi:10.1364/JOSA.48.000451 (https://doi.org/10.1364%2FJOSA.
48.000451). S2CID 121430089 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:121430089).
4. Stiles, W.S.; Wyszecki, G. (1962). "Counting metameric object colors". Journal of the Optical
Society of America. 52 (3): 313–319. doi:10.1364/JOSA.52.000313 (https://doi.org/10.136
4%2FJOSA.52.000313). S2CID 123364360 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:1233
64360).
5. Wyszecki, G.; Fielder, G.H. (1971). "New color-matching ellipses". Journal of the Optical
Society of America. 61 (9): 1135–1152. doi:10.1364/josa.61.001135 (https://doi.org/10.136
4%2Fjosa.61.001135). PMID 5121883 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5121883).
S2CID 7731252 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:7731252).
6. Wyszecki, G.; Fielder, G.H. (1971). "Color-difference matches". Journal of the Optical
Society of America. 61 (11): 1501–1513. doi:10.1364/josa.61.001501 (https://doi.org/10.136
4%2Fjosa.61.001501). PMID 5111047 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5111047).
S2CID 41507718 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:41507718).
7. Wyszecki, G. (1967). "Correlate for brightness in terms of CIE chromaticity coordinates and
luminous reflectance". Journal of the Optical Society of America. 57 (2): 254–257.
doi:10.1364/JOSA.57.000254 (https://doi.org/10.1364%2FJOSA.57.000254).
PMID 6034531 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6034531). S2CID 40383513 (https://api.se
manticscholar.org/CorpusID:40383513).
8. Wyszecki, G. (1960). Farbsysteme. Göttingen: Musterschmidt Verlag.
9. Judd, D.B.; Wyszecki, G. (1963). Color in business, science, and industry (2nd ed.). New
York: Wiley.
10. Judd, D.B.; Wyszecki, G. (1975). Color in business, science, and industry (3rd ed.). New
York: Wiley.
11. Wyszecki, G.; Stiles, W.S. (1967). Color science: Concepts and methods, quantitative data
and formulae (1st ed.). New York: Wiley.
12. Wyszecki, G.; Stiles, W.S. (1982). Color science: Concepts and methods, quantitative data
and formulae (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Günter_Wyszecki&oldid=1271264401"
