Is there a color editor that simulates the way our eye cones respond to colors?

Question

I read that our eye cones do not respond most to red, green and blue but to yellow, green-yellow and blue.  I thought it would be of interest to work with a color editor based on these colors instead of the standard RGB editor in order to get a sense for how our eyes respond to colors.  I was curious, for example, to understand how we can see indigo and violet in the rainbow spectrum.  The RGB formulation of these colors has settings for red and blue but not for green.  This could not possibly be how it works in our eyes, since it would imply that our high and low frequency receptors would be active but not our middle range receptors.

DrAnubis · Accepted Answer

yellow and yellow-green are just the maxima of those two cones, but using only these two colors they would not be different enough from each other to create the full color specturm (e.g. you cannot mix green and yellow to create red) as shown in this graph, the cones respond to a broad spectrum of wavelengths:  http://www.brown.edu/Courses/CG11/2007/Kelly_Robinson/cone-spectral-sensitivitie.jpg

this article introduces the red green violet model, which would be the best appoximation of the three cones: http://www.applet-magic.com/violet.htm
I think the reason why the RGB model is used even though it doesnt exactly represent the three cones, is just for practical reasons, it is difficult to produce the pure violet color. 

and the last link shows, that for some complicated physical and psychological reasons, we can not distinguish between a pure monochomatic color and one that is mixed out of different primary colors anyway. so in the end result, it doesnt really matter which three colors you use, as long as they are enough different from each other.

Midnite Rambler · Answer

every colour editor already does - what do you think you look at the results of colour editing with?

No matter how much simulation you build in, you will still view the results using your eyes.

However, you may find this interesting... http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/ - it's a colour blindness simulator which shows how people with the various types of colour blindness see things.

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Is there a color editor that simulates the way our eye cones respond to colors?

2 Answers