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CIELUV

physical science Maturity 7-9 Next article →

Scientists use special math to describe colors. One important way to do this is called CIELUV. This is a color space used in colorimetry. Colorimetry is the study of how we see color. CIELUV helps make colors feel even to our eyes. This is called perceptual uniformity. It is very useful for computer graphics. These graphics often deal with colored lights.

CIE 1976 UCS
CIE 1976 UCS

This system works by changing another system. It turns the 1931 CIE XYZ color space into CIELUV. It uses three specific parts to name a color. These parts are L*, u*, and v*. The L* part tells us about lightness. The u* and v* parts tell us about the color itself. This math makes the colors easy to compute. It helps computers understand how light looks to people.

CIE 1976 UCS
CIE 1976 UCS

History shows how this system grew over time. CIELUV is an update of the CIE 1964 system. That older system was called CIEUVW. The CIE adopted CIELUV in 1976. They also adopted another system called CIELAB at the same time. They did this because they could not pick just one. CIELUV is an Adams chromatic valence color space. It changed the lightness scale from the old version.

CIE 1976 UCS
CIE 1976 UCS

There are many specific details in this math. One part is called the white point. This is a specified white object. It uses values like u'n and v'n. For a standard illuminant C, these values are 0.1978 and 0.4875. The system uses something called Judd-type adaptation. This is a way to change how we see light. It works well for a single light source. However, it can sometimes predict imaginary colors.

CIE 1976 UCS
CIE 1976 UCS

People also use a different version of this system. It is called CIELChuv. This version uses a cylindrical shape. It uses hue, chroma, and luminance. Hue is the name of the color. Chroma is how strong the color is. Luminance is how much light it gives off. This helps people show data on screens. It prevents bias when using different colors.

CIE 1976 UCS
CIE 1976 UCS
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