Method of describing a color in a triaxial planar vector color space

Claim 1

A method of representing a color according to the vector space geometry in a triaxial, essentially planar vector color space comprising the steps of: (a) illuminating a surface with light, said light having a spectral composition and intensity generally throughout the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, and receiving said light or receiving light intensity from a self-luminous object, (b) converting the received intensity of said light from said surface or said object into electronic data representing at least three visual responses either optically with filters or electronically with a mathematical transformation related to wavelength, intensity, and perception, (c) selecting the lowest value of said electronic data as achromatic data and converting said electronic data into chromatic data by letting each value of said electronic data be an ordinate value on a corresponding axis of a triaxial, essentially planar vector space and determining chroma as the magnitude and hue as the direction of the vector resulting from said vector space geometry of the ordinate values of said electronic data, (d) determining the amounts of primary colors capable of representing said color by comparing said converted achromatic and chromatic data to similarly converted achromatic and chromatic data from known colors having known corresponding density, intensity, or area amounts relative to a pixel element in terms of said primary colors, and (e) storing, transmitting, or outputting said chromatic and achromatic data, or said amounts of primary colors.

Claim 2

A method of representing a color according to the vector space geometry in a triaxial, essentially planar vector color space comprising the steps of: (a) illuminating a surface with light, said light having a spectral composition and intensity generally throughout the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, and receiving said light or receiving light intensity from a self-luminous object, (b) converting the received intensity of said light from said surface or said object into electronic data representing at least three visual responses either optically with filters or electronically with a mathematical transformation related to wavelength, intensity, and perception, (c) selecting the lowest value of said electronic data as achromatic data and converting said electronic data into chromatic data by letting each value of said electronic data be an ordinate value on a corresponding axis of a triaxial, essentially planar vector space and determining chroma as the magnitude and hue as the direction of the vector resulting from said vector space geometry of the ordinate values of said electronic data, (d) determining the amounts of primary colors capable of representing said color by comparing said converted achromatic and chromatic data to similarly converted achromatic and chromatic data from known colors having known corresponding density, intensity, or area amounts relative to a pixel element in terms of said primary colors, and (e) storing, transmitting, or outputting said chromatic and achromatic data, or said amounts of primary colors.