The Role of Schwartz Measures in Human Tri-Color Vision

TL;DR

This paper proposes that human tri-color vision utilizes Schwartz measures to process color data, supported by data showing good agreement with the hypothesis.

Contribution

It introduces the hypothesis that Schwartz measures are fundamental to human tri-color vision and tests this against empirical data.

Findings

Schwartz measures align with human color perception data

Color scalar quantities can be linearly combined to reproduce colors

Spectral colors are uniquely identifiable and cannot be duplicated by mixtures

Abstract

The human tri-color vision process may be characterized as follows: 1. A requirement of three scalar quantities to fully define a color (for example, intensity, hue, and purity), with 2. These scalar measures linear in the intensity of the incident light, allowing in general any specific color to be duplicated by an additive mixture of light from three standardized (basis) colors, 3. The exception being that the spectral colors are unique, in that they cannot be duplicated by any positive mixture of other colors. These characteristics strongly suggest that human color vision makes use of Schwartz measures in processing color data. This hypothesis is subject to test. In this brief paper, the results of this hypothesis are shown to be in good agreement with measured data.