Memory colors and the assessment of color quality in lighting applications.

Due to their potential use as an internal reference, memory colors may provide an excellent approach for the color rendition evaluation of white light sources in terms of predicting visual appreciation. Because of certain limitations in the design of existing memory-related color quality measures, a new metric based on the outcome of a series of recently conducted memory color appearance rating experiments is proposed in this work. In order to validate its predictive performance, a meta-correlation analysis on a comprehensive set of preference rating data collected from literature is performed. Results indicate that the new metric proposal outperforms established color quality measures and is capable of correctly predicting the rank order of light sources in different lighting scenarios. The future inclusion of this new metric into a comprehensive lighting quality model may serve as a valuable tool for the lighting designer to create optimally lit environments for humans that do not only support the visual task fulfillment but also increase the users' well-being and emotional comfort by rendering the perceived space in such a way that it complies with the people's inherent memory references.