Abstract: A method and a system have been developed to calibrate the total spectral radiance factor (TSRF) obtained from different instruments. A broad-band light source covering the whole visible range as well as the fluorescence excitation wavelengths is used to measure the TSRF, and one or more narrow-band light sources outside of the fluorescent band is used to measure fluorescent spectral radiance factor (FSRF) separately. After that, the TSRF is adjusted by the FSRF, and a calibrated TSRF can be obtained. This can be applied to characterize Optical Brightening Agents (OBAs) as well as other fluorescent materials without requiring any moving part of the instrument to do the calibration.

Abstract: In one or more implementations, an apparatus, system or method is provided to compensate for second-order diffraction error (SODE) in connection with color or light measurements of a sample. In one particular implementation, methods and systems have been developed to compensate for SODE in a spectrophotometer by using a set of wavelength-dependent compensation factors or called diffraction ratios. The compensation factors can be generated with a narrow-band light source that covers the lower part of the wavelength range of the spectrophotometer but not the higher part of the wavelength range where the second-order diffraction error occurs and can be applied to the raw data of the spectrophotometer to compensate for the second-order diffraction error.

Abstract: A method includes controlling a gloss channel of a color measurement apparatus to measure a surface gloss of a color sample to generate a gloss value for the color sample. A color channel of the color measurement apparatus is controlled to measure a reflectance spectrum of the color sample to generate a first plurality of reflectance values for the color sample under a first measurement geometry. The first plurality of reflectance values are converted to a second plurality of reflectance values representing the reflectance spectrum of the color sample under a second measurement geometry, different from the first measurement geometry. The converting utilizes an adjustment that is a function of the gloss value.

Abstract: When a light beam hits an opaque sample, the sample will reflect light towards various directions with various intensities back into the 2? hemisphere above the sample plane. Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) can be used to describe such a property of the sample. A hemi-spherical screen is used to collect the light in the 2? hemisphere, and a pin-hole imaging system can be used to map the intensity of light distributed in the 2? hemisphere into a 2-dimensional image. From this 2-dimensional image, the BRDF of the sample material can be obtained.

Abstract: A method has been developed to monitor the aging of an illuminator (such as a lamp) and the interior sphere wall in a sphere-based color measurement instrument. This monitoring process or method is configurable to independently monitor the aging of the illuminator as well as the aging of the interior surface of a color measurement device using standard calibration measurements already present in the color measurement device.

Abstract: In one example, a method includes controlling a gloss channel of a color measurement apparatus to measure a surface gloss of a color sample to generate a gloss value for the color sample, controlling a color channel of the color measurement apparatus to measure a reflectance spectrum of the color sample to generate a first plurality of reflectance values for the color sample under a first measurement geometry, and converting the first plurality of reflectance values to a second plurality of reflectance values representing the reflectance spectrum of the color sample under a second measurement geometry, different from the first measurement geometry, wherein the converting utilizes an adjustment that is a function of the gloss value.

Abstract: In the disclosure provided herein, the described apparatus, systems and methods are directed to compensation of errors caused by the difference between the specular port and the sphere in a sphere-based color-measurement instrument, and improvement of the performance of the instrument. In one or more implementations, described approaches eliminate the need for hardware replacement, and therefore reduce costs associated with the operation of color measurement instruments.

Abstract: In the disclosure provided herein, the described apparatus, systems and methods are directed to compensation of errors caused by the difference between the specular port and the sphere in a sphere-based color-measurement instrument, and improvement of the performance of the instrument. In one or more implementations, described approaches eliminate the need for hardware replacement, and therefore reduce costs associated with the operation of color measurement instruments.

Abstract: In accordance with one or more implementations of the apparatus, system and methods described, a sample measurement device is provided that is configured to measure the color of a sample. The sample measurement device includes at least one light source configured to illuminate the sample; at least one light sensor configured to output a signal in response to light emitted by light source and reflected off the sample being received by at least a portion of the light sensor; and a processor configured to receive the signal and calculate a color value for the sample, the processor configured to calculate the color value by at least adjusting the signal using a calibration factor.

Abstract: A method has been developed to monitor the aging of an illuminator (such as a lamp) and the interior sphere wall in a sphere-based color measurement instrument. This monitoring process or method is configurable to independently monitor the aging of the illuminator as well as the aging of the interior surface of a color measurement device using standard calibration measurements already present in the color measurement device.

Abstract: A system including a processor and a memory configured to store code executed by the processor is provided. In one or more implementations, the processor is configured by the code to calibrate measurements made by color measurement devices. In one particular implementation, the processor receives a measurement dataset of one or more color values, for a sample obtained by a color measurement device. The processor is configured to convert the measurement dataset to a standard space measurement dataset using a standard space measurement model and calculate a color dataset based on the standard space measurement dataset using a color conversion model. The processor is further configured to output the calculated color dataset to at least one of a display, database or local memory store.

Abstract: A method has been developed to improve the stability of a color measurement system that measures reflectances using matrix-transformation method. The transformation matrix can be obtained by training with a raw measurement matrix and a master reflectance matrix. The raw measurement matrix can be stacked with one or more of its variations, with each variation being some random noise added onto a part or the whole original raw signal matrix. The same number of master reflectance matrices are also stacked to match the size and sample ordering of the raw measurement matrix. The resulting transformation matrix will be more stable and less sensitive to the measurement noise.

Abstract: A method has been developed to improve the stability of a color measurement system that measures reflectances using matrix-transformation method. The transformation matrix can be obtained by training with a raw measurement matrix and a master reflectance matrix. The raw measurement matrix can be stacked with one or more of its variations, with each variation being some random noise added onto a part or the whole original raw signal matrix. The same number of master reflectance matrices are also stacked to match the size and sample ordering of the raw measurement matrix. The resulting transformation matrix will be more stable and less sensitive to the measurement noise.

Abstract: By way of overview and introduction, various embodiments of the apparatus, systems and methods described herein are directed improved approaches to aligning and standardizing different total spectral radiance factor shapes measured with different instruments. Furthermore, in one or more configurations and approaches, the disclosure presented herein is directed to obtaining a whiteness calibration value for use in sample measurements without the need of UV filter adjustments.

Abstract: As described herein, a method has been developed to estimate the gloss of a black or dark sample using a color measurement system. In such a system, when measuring a higher gloss sample, more illumination light reflected from the sample surface will be directed away from the receiving sensor, and thus less signal will be detected. Using a derived sensor-signal to surface-gloss relationship, the surface gloss of a sample can be calculated by applying the measurements of the sample to the signal to gloss relationship to obtain a more accurate gloss measurement of a sample under analysis.

Abstract: In accordance with one or more implementations of the apparatus, system and methods described, a sample measurement device is provided that is configured to measure the color of a sample. The sample measurement device includes at least one light source configured to illuminate the sample; at least one light sensor configured to output a signal in response to light emitted by light source and reflected off the sample being received by at least a portion of the light sensor; and a processor configured to receive the signal and calculate a color value for the sample, the processor configured to calculate the color value by at least adjusting the signal using a calibration factor.

Abstract: A system including a processor and a memory configured to store code executed by the processor is provided. In one or more implementations, the processor is configured by the code to calibrate measurements made by color measurement devices. In one particular implementation, the processor receives a measurement dataset of one or more color values, for a sample obtained by a color measurement device. The processor is configured to convert the measurement dataset to a standard space measurement dataset using a standard space measurement model and calculate a color dataset based on the standard space measurement dataset using a color conversion model. The processor is further configured to output the calculated color dataset to at least one of a display, database or local memory store.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention are directed towards systems, methods and computer program products for correcting inter-instrumentation variation among color measurement devices. In one particular implementation, a method for correcting inter-instrument variation among color measurement devices includes obtaining a set of color measurements of an item under analysis. The described approach also includes accessing a conversion model, wherein the conversion module has been generated using one or more ANN back propagated over a collection of data points, where the data points correspond to measurements of a color standard using devices from a control device batch and a test device batch. Using the conversion module, a processor is configured to transform the set of color measurements into a calibrated color measurement set. The calibrated color measurement set is then output to at least one display, memory or remote computing device.

Abstract: By way of overview and introduction, various embodiments of the apparatus, systems and methods described herein are directed improved approaches to aligning and standardizing different total spectral radiance factor shapes measured with different instruments. Furthermore, in one or more configurations and approaches, the disclosure presented herein is directed to obtaining a whiteness calibration value for use in sample measurements without the need of UV filter adjustments.

Abstract: In accordance with particular implementations of the invention described herein, a sample for analysis is illuminated under each of one or more narrow-band light sources. The light incident upon this sample is received by a sensor that generates measurement data in response thereto. One or more processors are configured to receive the measurement data and derive an excitation response curve and a fluorescent response curve from the measurement data. The processor is further configured to generate a fluorescent profile value using measurements from the fluorescent response curve for each of the captured narrow band measurement data and an excitation profile value corresponding to the area under the fluorescence curve divided by the area under the excitation curve. The generated fluorescent profile and excitation profile are both output as a dataset providing improved measurement values over similar approaches in the art.