Unit 3: Video Properties and The

Eye

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Outline

Eye sensitivity to colour

The structure of the eye
Spatial frequency
Temporal frequency
Non-linear video parameters
Contrast sensitivity
Gamma correction

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Visible Light Range

Light is a Part of the EM Wave

3
Light Energy

4
The Structure of the Eye

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 Human Perception
Retina contains photo
receptors
Cones: day vision, can
perceive color tone
Red, green, and blue
cones
Different cones have
different frequency
responses
Tri-receptor theory of
color vision
[Young1802]
Rods: night vision,
perceive brightness only
Color sensation is
characterized by
Luminance (brightness)
Chrominance
Hue (color tone)
Saturation (color purity)

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HVS (Camera Obscura)

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Camera

RGB color filter RGB photoreceptor

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Cone Response
Color vision is achieved by the use of three types
of cones: red, blue and green. Each cone is turned
to a different portion of the visible spectrum.

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Sensitivity to Color

The eye does not respond

to each color equally.

The eye sees green best

followed by red than blue.
Rod enhances green the
most

The eye is more sensitive

to luminance rather than
chrominance.

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Applications

Luminance is more sensitive and

important
From monochromatic TV to color TV,
signal evolution path
Color sub-sampling

More senstive to green color

Night vision equipment

11
Darkness Adjustment

Rod take overs

vision in long
dark period

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Colour Blindness

Colour blindness
Canot distinguish colours such as
confusing the red and green of traffic lights.

13
Visual Persistence

Visual Persistence
The visual system has a slow response to
change in stimulus. The eye can still sense
an image for a little while after the physical
image is removed.
Human eyes are incapable of capturing
stimulus changes occurring in less than
50ms.

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Video System

Video systems make use of visual

persistence to set frame rates needed
to give to give perception of motion in
film
Dark environment 24Hz
Bright environment 60/50Hz

15
Colour Mixing

Trichromatic colour
mixing theory
Any colour can be
obtained by mixing
three primary
colours with a right
proportion

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Color Mix Example

Gray colour can be derived

from R:151, G:234, B:215

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Spatial Frequency

Low spatial frequency High spatial frequency

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Sensitivity to Spatial Frequency

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Visual Acuity
Visual acuity is a term commonly used to
describe the eyes ability to resolve spatial
details.
In the snellen chart, the term 20/20. This
means that at 20 feet or 6 meters, a typical
human eye, able to separate 1 minute arc,
can resolve lines with a spacing of about
1.75mm. This is roughly the limit of angular
discrimination of normal vision.
If there are less than 24 changes per degree
of vision from the eye, each of these
changes will be seen as distinct and of fixed
location. But at slightly higher spatial rates Snellen chart
(e.g., 25 cycles per degree above) no
changes would be observed as the rate of
change would exceed the eyes capability.

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Temporal Property of The Eye

Visual Persistency
1/16 seconds

Slow stimuli response

0.15 to 0.3 seconds

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Temporal Property of The Eye
Saccadic motion: is a fast movement of an eye,
head or other part of body. It is a quick
simultaneous movements of both eyes in the same
direction. By moving the eye so that small parts of
a scene can be sensed with greater resolution.

Dynamic resolution: the eye is made to move at

exactly the same speed as the stripped object, it
will see a fixed brightness of the point at which the
eye is fixed. The eye see details as if the object
were stationary.

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Contrast Sensitivity of Eye
Intensity is radiant
power in a particular
direction and
luminance is
proportional to
intensity.
Vision cannot
distinguish two
luminance levels if the
ratio between them is
less than about 1.01.
Contrast sensitivity is
proportional to
brightness.

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Contrast Sensitivity Example

A person with low contrast sensitivity might see a

scene in this way (Left), with very little distinction of
boundaries in the objects shown. Note how much
contrast this scene has lost compared with the
Right image depicting normal sight.

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Eye Gamma Correction

Eye is more sensitive to changes

in dark shades than in bright
shades.
The eyes response to light
intensity can be modelled by the
formula
output (input ) , where 1.0

The eye should receive light

intensity with a curve having a
gamma between 1.125 to 1.5.
The input should have a gamma Eyes response to intersity is not linear
between 1.125 to 1.5.

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Gamma Correction for Devices

Electrical display and recoding

devices have a widely varying
gamma curves.
A camera usually has a gamma
of 0.45
A cathode ray tubes(CRT) have
a gamma of 2.5.

The finally generated input to

our eyes is 2.5x0.45=1.125.

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Gamma Correction Example

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_correction

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