Color Selection System

• US 20100194775A1
• Filed: 07/10/2008
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Columbia Insurance Company (Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Benjamin Moore & Company (Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated), University of Leeds
• Inventors: Luo, Ming Ronnier, Minchew, Carl, Ou, Li-Chen, Chong, Patrick Tak-Fu
• Granted Patent: US 8,427,498 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/594
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/46 Measurement of colour; Colour measuring devices, e.g. colorimeters measuring colour temperature G01J5/60
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/462 Computing operations in or between colour spaces; Colour management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/526 for choosing a combination of different colours, e.g. to produce a pleasing effect for an observer

Abstract

Color selection and display methods and devices in which colors can be displayed according to color harmony and color emotion and feedback obtained on color emotion and color harmony evoked by selected color and/or color combinations.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for selecting colors comprising:

associating, in dependence on a mathematical equation that models a human emotional response to color, a color emotion score with each of a plurality of colors that are numerically defined in a color library;

receiving a user input indicating a desired color emotion level; and

selecting, from the color library, colors for presentation to the user in dependence on the color emotion scores associated therewith and the desired color emotion level.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the mathematical equation is derived from measuring the psychological responses of a plurality of test subjects to a plurality of test colors.

3. The method of claim 2 comprising:

displaying the selected colors as user selectable color elements in a first display region of a visual user interface.

4. The method of claim 3 comprising displaying in the visual interface an indication of the desired color emotion level as inputted by the user.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the user input comprises user selection of the desired emotion level from a displayed color emotion scale having a plurality of discrete selectable levels.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the color elements are arranged in an array organized by color depth along one axis and by hue along another axis.

7. The method of claim 3 comprising:

receiving user input selecting at least one of the color elements from the first display region; and

displaying in the visual user interface a color candidate emotion score for the color represented by the selected at least one color element, wherein the color candidate emotion score is determined in dependence on a mathematical equation that models a human emotional response to color.

8. The method of claim 7 including displaying on a second display region of the visual user interface a candidate color element that represents the same color as the selected at least one color element.

9. The method of claim 8 including displaying in the second display region a plurality of candidate color elements representing different colors, wherein displaying in the visual user interface the color candidate emotion score includes calculating a combined color emotion score for the plurality of candidate color elements in dependence on color emotion scores calculated individually for each of the candidate color elements and displaying the combined color emotion score as the color candidate score.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein when three or more candidate color elements are displayed in the second display regions, and wherein the combined color emotion score for the plurality of color candidate elements is calculated in dependence on the relative locations of the color candidate elements to each other.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein when three or more candidate color elements are displayed in the second display regions, the combined color emotion score for the plurality of color candidate elements is calculated in by averaging color emotion scores for each of the color candidate elements.

12. The method of claim 9 comprising calculating a plurality of color candidate emotion scores for the plurality of candidate color elements, each of the color candidate emotion scores representing a different human emotional response and being calculated in dependence on a respective mathematical equation that models the respective human emotional response.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein at least one of the color candidate emotion scores represents one of the following human emotion pairings:

inviting-uninviting;

exciting-calming;

warm-cool;

light-dark;

clean-dirty;

happy-sad;

or fun-serious.

14. The method of claim 3 comprising:

receiving user inputs selecting at least two of the color elements from the first display region; and

displaying in the visual user interface a color harmony score for the combination of colors represented by the selected color elements, wherein the color harmony score is determined in dependence on a mathematical color harmony equation that models a human perception of color harmony.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the mathematical color harmony equation is derived from measuring the psychological responses of a plurality of test subjects to a plurality of test colors.

16. The method of claim 3 including receiving user inputs selecting at least three of the color elements from the first display region;

and

displaying in the visual user interface a color harmony score for the combination of colors represented by the selected color elements, wherein the color harmony score is determined in dependence on (a) a mathematical color harmony equation that models a human perception of color harmony and (b) a relative position of the color elements to each other.

17. The method of claim 3 comprising:

receiving a user input indicating a desired harmony level for all of the color elements displayed in the first display region and selecting the colors elements displayed in the first display region in dependence on the desired harmony level, wherein harmony for the selected colors is determined in dependence on a mathematical equation that models a human perception of color harmony.

18. The method of claim 3 wherein receiving the user input indicating a desired color emotion level, selecting colors for presentation to the user in dependence on the color emotion scores associated therewith and the desired color emotion level, and displaying the selected colors as user selectable color elements in a first display region of a visual user interface each occur at a single computing device.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the colors are numerically defined in the color library using CIELAB values and the color emotion score for each of the colors is pre-stored in the library.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the color emotion score associated with each color represents a value on an exciting-claming emotion pairing, and the mathematical equation for modeling the emotional response uses the CEILAB color coordinates L* a* and b* as inputs.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the color emotion score associated with each color is determined by the equation:

$\mathrm{Exciting}=-1.13+{0.02<br><br>\left[\begin{array}{c}{\left(L^{*}+40\right)}^2+\\ {\left(\frac{a^{*}}{0.37}\right)}^2+{\left(\frac{b^{*}}{0.60}\right)}^2\end{array}\right]}^{\frac{1}{2}}$

where L*, a* and b* represent CIELAB coordinates for the color.

22. (canceled)

23. A color selection device comprising:

a controller for controlling operation of the device;

a user input device coupled to the controller;

a display coupled to the controller;

a color library accessible to the controller and comprising numeric data defining a plurality of different colors;

the controller being configured for;

(a) generating a visual user interface on the display that includes a color group display region in which a first group of color elements that represent some of the colors defined in the color library are displayed;

(b) receiving through the user input device a desired color emotion level for the color elements displayed in the color group display region; and

(c) changing the color group display region to display a second group of color elements that represent different colors defined in the color library in dependence on the desired color emotion level and color emotion scores associated with each of the colors, wherein the color emotion score associated with each color is determined in dependence on a mathematical equation that models a specific human emotional response to color and which has been derived from measuring the psychological responses of a plurality of test subjects to a plurality of test colors.

24. The color selection device of claim 23 wherein the controller is configured for receiving a through the user input device a desired color group harmony level for all of the colors displayed in the color group display region and modifying the displayed group of color elements to indicate the color elements that collectively achieve the desired color group harmony level.

25. A computer implemented method for providing feedback on color selections, comprising:

providing on a display a visual user interface that includes a plurality of user selectable color elements each representing different colors that are numerically defined in a color library;

receiving user input selecting at least two of the color elements as color candidate elements;

calculating, using a first mathematical model, a first human psychophysical perception value that represents a first human psychophysical perception of the color combination represented by the color candidate elements; and

presenting in the visual user interface a representation of the first human psychophysical perception value.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the first human psychophysical perception value is presented on a scale.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the first human psychophysical perception corresponds to a human emotional response to the color combination.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein the first human psychophysical perception corresponds to a human perception of color harmony achieved by the color combination.

29. The method of claim 25 the user selectable color elements are arranged in an array organized by color depth along one axis and by hue along another axis.

30. The method of claim 25 wherein the first mathematical model has been derived from measuring the psychophysical responses of a plurality of test subjects to a plurality of test colors.

31. The method of claim 25 comprising:

calculating, using a plurality of further mathematical models, a plurality of further human psychophysical perception values that each represent a further human psychophysical perception of the color combination represented by the color candidate elements; and

presenting in the visual user interface representations of the further human psychophysical perception values.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the human psychophysical perception values include values that corresponds to one of the following human emotional response pairings:

inviting-uninviting;

exciting-calming;

warm-cool;

light-dark;

clean-dirty;

happy-sad;

or fun-serious, and a value that corresponds to a human perception of color harmony achieved by the color combination.

33. The method of claim 31 including providing in the visual user interface a first display region in which the user selectable color elements are displayed, a second display region in which the user selected color candidate elements are displayed, and a third display region in which the representations of the human psychophysical perception values are displayed.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the mathematical model used to calculate the human psychophysical perception value for at least one of the human psychophysical perceptions distinguishes between adjacent and non adjacent candidate elements in the second display region.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein one of the mathematical models is a color harmony model used to calculate a color harmony human psychophysical perception value for the color combination and under the color harmony model when there are three or more color candidate elements, the color harmony psychophysical perception values is determined as follows:

(a) for each unique pair of adjacent color candidate elements in the second display region, a color harmony value CH_A for the pair is determined using a first equation and in dependence on numeric attributes assigned to each of the pair of adjacent color candidate elements,

(b) for each unique pair of non-adjacent color candidate elements in the second display region, a color harmony value CH_N is determined using a second equation and in dependence on numeric attributes assigned to each of the pair of non-adjacent color candidate elements, and

(c) the color harmony perception value for the entire color combination represented in the second display region is determined by averaging the color harmony values for all unique color pairs as follows;

$\mathrm{CH}=\frac{1}{n}<br><br>\left[\sum <br><br>\left({\mathrm{CH}}_A\right)+\sum <br><br>\left({\mathrm{CH}}_N\right)\right]$

where n is the total number of unique color pairs in the colour combination, and CH_A and CH_N are harmony scores for adjacent and nonadjacent color pairs, respectively.

36. The method of claim 33 wherein one of the mathematical models is a color emotion model used to calculate a color emotion value that corresponds to a human emotional response, wherein when three or more color candidate elements are present in the second display region the color emotion value is determined as follows:

(a) for each unique pair of adjacent color candidate elements displayed in the second display region, a color emotion value (Emotion_A) is calculated using a first equation and in dependence on numeric attributes assigned to each of the pair of adjacent color candidate elements,

(b) for each pair of non-adjacent color candidate elements, a color emotion value (Emotion_N) is calculated using a second equation and in dependence on numeric attributes assigned to each of the pair of non-adjacent color candidate elements, and

(c) a color emotion value for the color combination considering both adjacent and nonadjacent color candidate elements is determined as follows;

Color Emotion Value=1/n[Σ

(Emotion_A)+Σ

(Emotion_N)]

where n is the total number of unique color pairs in the colour combination

37. The method of claim 33 wherein when there are three or more color candidate elements displayed in the second display region, at least one of the human psychophysical perception values for the color combination is determined by calculating a color emotion score for each color in the color combination and then averaging the color emotion scores.

38. The method of claim 33 wherein one of the human psychophysical perception values represents a value on a warm-cool emotional response pairing for the color combination, and when there are two or more color candidate elements displayed in the second display region, at least one of the psychophysical perception values for the color combination is determined by:

(a) calculating a color emotion score for each color in the color combination according to the equation;

Warm=0.02+0.12(C*_ab)^0.6 cos(h_ab−

45°

)−

(1.5×

10<sup>−

8</sup>)(L*)^1.9

where C*ab, hab and L* represent CIELAB chroma, hue angle and lightness for the subject color, and

(b) then averaging the color emotion scores.

39. The method of claim 25 wherein the first human psychophysical perception corresponds to a perception of color harmony achieved by the color combination, the method including determining if the first human psychophysical perception value falls beneath a threshold and if so generating an alert to the user.

40. (canceled)

41. A color selection device comprising:

a controller for controlling operation of the device;

a user input device coupled to the controller;

a display coupled to the controller;

a color library accessible to the controller and comprising numeric data defining a plurality of different colors;

the controller being configured for;

(a) providing on a display a visual user interface that includes a plurality of user selectable color elements each representing different colors that are numerically defined in the color library;

(b) receiving user input selecting at least two of the color elements as color candidate elements;

(c) calculating, using a first mathematical model, a first human psychophysical perception value that represents a first human psychophysical perception of the color combination represented by the color candidate elements; and

(d) presenting in the visual user interface a representation of the first human psychophysical perception value.