Optimal sampling wavelengths are investigated for the application of spectral estimation methods for color measurement with 3D laser scanning systems. Methods based on principal component analysis and on spline interpolation are considered. Unconstrained optimizations of the average ΔE94 color difference over large sets of reflectance curves are used to derive the optimal sets of 3 to 6 sampling wavelengths. It is found that the PCA method is slightly better than the spline method overall, and that the ΔE94 errors are reduced roughly by one half when the number of sampling wavelengths increases by one. Four or five sampling wavelengths become sufficient to bring the average error below the one just noticeable difference benchmark. Spectral estimation with 5 optimal wavelengths using the principal components derived from the OSA-UCS catalog appears adequate for the most demanding applications.
Réjean Baribeau, "Optimal Wavelength Selection in Laser Scanning Systems for Improved Spectral Estimation of Object Reflectances and Colors" in Proc. IS&T CGIV 2002 First European Conf. on Colour in Graphics, Imaging, and Vision, 2002, pp 623 - 626, https://doi.org/10.2352/CGIV.2002.1.1.art00130