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Volume: 27 | Article ID: art00016
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Beyond raw-RGB and sRGB: Advocating Access to a Colorimetric Image State
  DOI :  10.2352/issn.2169-2629.2019.27.16  Published OnlineOctober 2019
Abstract

Most modern cameras allow captured images to be saved in two color spaces: (1) raw-RGB and (2) standard RGB (sRGB). The raw-RGB image represents a scene-referred sensor image whose RGB values are specific to the color sensitivities of the sensor's color filter array. The sRGB image represents a display-referred image that has been rendered through the camera's image signal processor (ISP). The rendering process involves several camera-specific photo-finishing manipulations intended to make the sRGB image visually pleasing. For applications that want to use a camera for purposes beyond photography, both the raw-RGB and sRGB color spaces are undesirable. For example, because the raw-RGB color space is dependent on the camera's sensor, it is challenging to develop applications that work across multiple cameras. Similarly, the camera-specific photo-finishing operations used to render sRGB images also hinder applications intended to run on different cameras. Interestingly, the ISP camera pipeline includes a colorimetric conversion stage where the raw-RGB images are converted to a device-independent color space. However, this image state is not accessible. In this paper, we advocate for the ability to access the colorimetric image state and recommend that cameras output a third image format that is based on this device-independent colorimetric space. To this end, we perform experiments to demonstrate that image pixel values in a colorimetric space are more similar across different makes and models than sRGB and raw-RGB.

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  Cite this article 

Hakki Can Karaimer, Michael S. Brown, "Beyond raw-RGB and sRGB: Advocating Access to a Colorimetric Image Statein Proc. IS&T 27th Color and Imaging Conf.,  2019,  pp 86 - 90,  https://doi.org/10.2352/issn.2169-2629.2019.27.16

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Copyright © Society for Imaging Science and Technology 2019
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Color and Imaging Conference
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