Hi cliff, YOu say that any app which cannot identify colors in full sunlight is suspect…
this is not that simple of a situation. There is more going on here. Not only do you have a light level to take into account, but you also have the light temperature or color to take into account. There is actually more to this as well, but for now, let's just stay with the light itself. As David mentions, in low-light, the human eye relies more on the rods which are used for night vision. These cells see in black and white. So the effect of this is that colors become less vivid or drain completely until they basically appear to be shades of grey. While the camera does not have rods and cones, it is also subject to its need for good lighting conditions. So the camera's sensor may not actually have enough color data to communicate this to an app. If you look at images taken with digital cameras, which consist mostly of blacks, you may find that the image itself takes up less space. Data which represents color and lighting actually can make an image's size greater. So it is important to have enough light for an app to be able to have the appropriate data with which to decide on the most prevalent color in the image. Which actually gets into a whole other discussion. Back to the lighting though… In full sunlight ideally the light should be as good as it can get, but it's also not that simple. The temperature of the light or its color can still change depending on time of day or atmospheric conditions etc. Some days the sunlight can be warmer with more red in it and other days it can appear cooler with more blue in it. I'm not sure if you've had sight but some days the sun can appear more white than yellow. this shows a differing light temperature. Cameras are very sensitive to this and this is one reason why color identification using a camera can be so difficult. the other factor to consider is are you getting too much light into the camera's sensor? In bright sunlight, it is easily possible to blow out the colors in your image. This means that your colors will become washed out or closer to white. So again, bad for color identification. Even indoors when using your camera's flash, it is possible to have your colors wash out. This is not unheard of on the iPhone as the flash is pretty bright and of a high temperature. So depending on how close you are to the item you are trying to use color identification with you can also get erroneous results. there are also other factors for good color in digital photos but for now these I've discussed above are really important. This is why stand-alone color identifiers are as good as they are. They calibrate the lighting and sensor and attempt to eliminate any other light from getting into the sensor. So with a camera, at least on a cell phone, one tends not to be able to have such control. This is why color identification is not as good on cell phones. Having said this, for my own personal opinion, the best color identification app I've found is ColorVisor by VisorApps which you can find at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/colorvisor/id511093568?mt=8&ls=1 there is also another way I check for color using a light detector app. I have three identical tops. One is white, one is Sea Foam and the other is black. Using the light detector, I can easily and accurately tell which top is which. The app issues a high pitch when it sees more light and low pitch when it sees less light. so if I either hold each top up to the camera or lay them out on my bed, as long as I have a constant light source in the room, I simply aim the camera at each top and can tell them apart by pitch. The white one reflects the most light so is the highest pitch. The Sea Foam reflects medium light so is a medium pitch and the black one reflects the least light so is the lowest pitch. The app is simply called Light Detector by EveryWare Technologies (make note of the spelling) You can find this app at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/light-detector/id420929143?mt=8&ls=1 good luck and thanks for the great question! Smiles, Cara :) On Aug 4, 2013, at 4:18 PM, Cliff Self <[email protected]> wrote: In this case I was outdoors in full sunlight. Any app that can't discriminate a color in that situation is suspect, if not fully unreliable. Cliff ----- Original Message ----- From: David Chittenden To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, August 04, 2013 4:00 PM Subject: Re: Best color identifier? On Friday evening, I was at a dance. The lights were on. I started asking a lady what colour various articles of clothing I was wearing were. Several times, she was not sure. She said the lighting in the hall caused a different shading, so she couldn't tell very well. Now, if a sighted person has difficulty and variability based on lighting and other factors, how can we expect a colour ID app to do better? It really depends on many factors. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: [email protected] Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 05/08/2013, at 10:46, "Cliff Self" <[email protected]> wrote: > Any suggestions for the best one out there? Currently I have Color ID, but > it's less than reliable. Just now it told me my skin was purplish blue. > Either there's something terribly wrong with me or with the app, and I feel > pretty healthy, so I suspect the latter. > > Cliff > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google > Group. > > Post a new message to VIPhone by emailing [email protected]. > > Search and view the VIPhone archives by visiting > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. > > Reach the VIPhone owner and moderators by emailing > [email protected]. > > Unsubscribe and leave VIPhone by emailing > [email protected]. > > More VIPhone group options can be found by visiting > http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VIPhone" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. 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