Visible Light-Based Human Visual System Conceptual Model

Abstract: There exists a widely accepted set of assertions in the digital image and video coding literature, which are as follows: the Human Visual System (HVS) is more sensitive to luminance (often confused with brightness) than photon energies (often confused with chromaticity and chrominance). Passages similar to the following occur with high frequency in the peer reviewed literature and academic text books: "the HVS is much more sensitive to brightness than colour" and/or "the HVS is much more sensitive to luma than chroma". In this discussion paper, a Visible Light-Based Human Visual System (VL-HVS) conceptual model is discussed. The objectives of VL-HVS are as follows: 1. To provide a deeper theoretical reflection of the fundamental relationship between visible light, the manifestation of colour perception derived from visible light and the physiology of the perception of colour. That is, in terms of the physics of visible light, photobiology and the human subjective interpretation of visible light, it is appropriate to provide comprehensive background information in relation to the natural interactions between visible light, the retinal photoreceptors and the subsequent cortical processing of such. 2. To provide a more wholesome account with respect to colour information in digital image and video processing applications. 3. To recontextualise colour data in the RGB and YCbCr colour spaces, such that novel techniques in digital image and video processing, including quantisation and artifact reduction techniques, may be developed based on both luma and chroma information (not luma data only).