Chromatic adaptation and white-balance problem

The problem of adjusting the color such that the output image from a digital camera, viewed under a standard condition, matches the scene observed by the photographer´s eye is called white-balance. While most white-balance algorithms approach the problem using the coefficient law (von Kries), the coefficient law has been shown inaccurate. In this paper, we instead formulate the white-balance problem using Jameson and Hurvich´s induced opponent response chromatic adaptation theory. The solution to this white-balance problem reduces to a single matrix multiplication. The experimental results using existing illuminant estimation methods verify that the induced opponent response approach to solving the white-balance problem yields more neutral colors in the white panels of the Macbeth color chart than the traditional methods. The computational cost of the proposed method is virtually zero.