Perceptual Design for High Dynamic Range Systems
Establishing a design process for a high dynamic range and wide color gamut signal representation that is based on perceptual limits, as opposed to image capture or display hardware restrictions, is beneficial from a fidelity, efficiency, and economic point of view. Such a signal representation will enable displays and cameras, as well as systems for image synthesis, manipulation, and transport, to improve without having their development hindered by limits imposed by the signal representation, as occurs today. This chapter describes the perceptual behavior of the human visual system and how this knowledge can be efficiently aligned with engineering concepts in order to design a perceptually accurate imaging pipeline. Key concepts that are discussed cover spatial and temporal perception, and how it affects quantization of dynamic range and, when combined with chromatic components, the extent and behavior of a system's color volume.