home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
- ║ ║
- ║ Color Vision Demonstrations ║
- ║ ║
- ║ Hans Irtel ║
- ║ University Regensburg ║
- ║ 1991 ║
- ║ ║
- ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
-
- ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
- ║ Installation Level 1 ║
- ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
-
- Running CVD requires:
-
- o An IBM PC or compatible
- o MS-DOS 3.2 or later
- o Mouse with driver installed
- o VGA color graphics adapter
- o VGA analog color monitor
-
- No special setup is necessary for this level of installation.
-
-
- Command line to run the program:
-
- CVD [options]
-
- These options are available:
-
- -b Show a monitor test image for adjusting the
- brightness and contrast settings.
-
- -d Use German Text
-
- -e Use English Text (default)
-
- -q Suppress the color selection field.
-
- -g <gammatable> This option enables CVD to use a special gamma table
- file. The format of these files is described in
- the PXL Reference Manual (H. Irtel (1991): PXL: A
- Library for Programming Psychological Experiments.
- Unpublished manuscript.). The default is to use an
- approximate gamma table with L=E^(2.5).
-
-
- ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
- ║ Setting up the Monitor ║
- ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
-
- The color demonstrations of CVD require rather careful monitor settings and
- surround conditions.
-
-
- I. Surround Conditions
-
- Optimal surround conditions for color demonstrations require photopic
- adaptation conditions and no light from other sources directly falling on
- the screen. Thus illuminate the room but position the light source behind
- the monitor.
-
-
- II. Monitor Adjustments
-
- Each monitor allows controlling its luminance response by a brightness and a
- contrast setting. Adjusting these is a two step procedure:
-
- 1. Areas with zero intensity have to be completely black. There must be no
- visible background signal. Set the brightness control to zero and increase
- it until there is some visible background intensity. Now reduce it again
- until the background stimulus is gone. This puts the monitor's zero point
- as high as possible without creating desaturation by a background signal.
-
- 2. White areas of maximum intensity must be as bright as possible without
- having color fringes or loosing clarity. Increase the contrast control as
- far as possible without getting images with color fringes.
-
- To help in monitor adjustment the program CVD may be started with the option
- -b in the command line. In this case a dark and a bright rectangle are
- shown. Use the dark rectangle for step 1 and the bright rectangle for step
- 2. Both rectangles contain three vertical stripes. The inner stripe is
- slightly brighter than the outer ones. The differences should be visible
- both in the dark and in the bright area. So adjust the monitor such that
-
- a) the dark area is hardly noticable different from the background
- and the inner stripe is slightly brighter than the outer stripes,
- and
-
- b) the bright field is as bright as possible but the inner and outer
- stripes still are discriminable.
-
- Use the brightness control for a) and the contrast control for b).
-
-
- III. Geometry
-
- To get the correct geometry the monitor's horizontal and vertical size has
- to be adjusted such that the single fields of the chromaticity diagram are
- right squares.
-
-
- ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
- ║ Installation Level 2 ║
- ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
-
- The program CVD is based on PXL, the author's library for programming
- psychological experiments. This library provides a second level of
- installation and system tuning for any program that is written with it. The
- previously described first level is sufficient for using CVD in classroom
- demonstrations. Using CVD as a research tool may require a more precise
- calibration.
-
- This is available via a special startup file and a set of parameters which
- control PXL's inner working. The startup file is called STARTUP.PXL and may
- reside in the current directory or in a directory which is indicated by an
- environment variable. This variable's name is PXLTABLES. It has to contain
- the full path name of the directory where the startup file may be found.
- Environment variables are set on the DOS command line by the SET command. An
- example is
-
- SET PXLTABLES=C:\CVD
-
- which sets the file path to the directory CVD on drive C.
-
- Here is an example of a startup file which sets physical screen size, the
- red, green, and blue screen phosphor chromaticities and the maximum
- luminance values for the three color channels:
-
- startup
- screenwidth = 2260
- screenheight = 1820
- redprimaryx = 0.640
- redprimaryy = 0.330
- redprimaryL = 28.9
- greenprimaryx = 0.290
- greenprimaryy = 0.600
- greenprimaryL = 103.4
- blueprimaryx = 0.150
- blueprimaryy = 0.060
- blueprimaryL = 11.61
- end
-
- Note that there are certain syntactical restrictions within the startup file.
- It has to begin with the keyword "startup" and end with "end". Parameters
- are named, the meaning of the names in the example is apparent. screen width
- and height are specified in 1 thenth of a millimeter. The luminance values
- of the primaries specify the maximum luminance in candela per square meter
- for the respective channel. Phosphor chromaticities are given in CIE 1931
- xy-chromaticity coordinates.
-
- The most precise level of calibration available is a gamma table with actual
- measurements of the luminance response functions. Please contact the author
- if you need more information on calibration.
-
-
-
- Author: Hans Irtel
- Universität Regensburg
- Institut für Psychologie
- Universitätsstr. 31
- 8400 Regensburg
-
- E-Mail: irtel@vax1.rz.uni-regensburg.dbp.de
-
-
-