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Calibration method for Correlated Color

Temperature (CCT) measurement using RGB
color sensors

Conference Paper · September 2013

DOI: 10.1109/STSIVA.2013.6644921

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Calibration method for Correlated Color Temperature
(CCT) measurement using RGB color sensors
Juan-Sebastián Botero Valencia
Docente Ocasional, Grupo Automática y Electrónica
Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano - ITM
Medellín, Colombia
juanbotero@itm.edu.co
Jesús-Francisco Vargas Bonilla
Docente Tiempo Completo, Grupo Sistemic
Universidad de Antioquia -UDEA
Medellín, Colombia
jfvargas@udea.edu.co
Abstract— The color is a feature derived from perceptual
light that is reflected on objects, as such, represents a physical
property. However, progress has been made in building
mathematical models to define it more clearly. Light sources play
an important role in the perception of colors and one of the
measures to characterize their effect is the Correlated Color
Temperature (CCT). The CCT is a measure used to characterize
light sources representing the temperature of a black body in
Kelvin to have the same chromaticity of the light source
analyzed. In this work, we used a low-cost RGB sensor in order
to find a model that can be transformed into XYZ space and then
estimate the value CCT. Five groups of light sources were
characterized using the values of the standard CIE color
matching function. Later we found a transformation matrix to
convert RGB into XYZ space, with this information the CCT was
measured with an error value of less than 6%. This work is
framed in the development of tools to control and lighting
measurements in order to carry out control environments and
characterization of artificial sources.
Keywords—ambient controt; calibration; Correlated Color
Temperature; illumination; RGB color sonsor.
I. INTRODUCTION
The light is a fundamental part in the interpretation of
color, reflected on objects and is absorbed by the receptors in
the retina to form the perception we have of color. Progress
has been made to build mathematical models to describe color
and light's sources, the most important are those made by the
International Commission on Illumination (CIE for its
acronym in French). One of the measures to characterize
sources is the Correlated Color Temperature (CCT). The CCT
is a measure used to characterize light sources representing the
temperature of a black body in Kelvin to have the same
chromaticity of the light source analyzed [1].
The Color, as property, is used in numerous applications as
orange classification [2], OLED (Organic LED)
characterization [3], to verify the stability of sausages [4], for
segmenting images in video sequences [5] and to classify fruit
quality as in [6] among many other applications, the overall
perception of color is a property that provides evolutionary
978-1-4799-1121-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE
Francisco-Eugenio López Giraldo
Asesor de proyectos, Grupo Automática y Electrónica
Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano - ITM
Medellín, Colombia
franciscolopez@itm.edu.co
advantages to our species [7]. The characterization of light
sources is very important for the study of color, and so they
have done work [8] where measurements were obtained for
most artificial light sources available. Similarly there are
specific works on characterization of LED sources [9] trying
to estimate their luminous efficiency and colour rendering,
and other works on characterization of low-power LED based
on its characteristic curve [10].
The CCT is a measure used to characterize light sources. It
was defined by the CIE in 1931, could be understood as the
proximity to the white light source. There are several revisions
from the original model [11]. Nowdays there are different
models that are used to transform from the chromaticity
coordinates into CCT [12]. The CCT, measured
independently, is a measure used to represent the warmth of a
source and technically this parameter is used to create
different types of commercial atmospheres [13], some studies
were performed to determine the response of users to changes
in controlled environments where the CCT is controlled [14].
The best way to estimate the value of a CCT source is use
spectral information to determine the values in XYZ space.
Values presented in [12] are used to convert the chromaticity
coordinates and then the defined reference point and the
polynomial are used to calculate the CCT value. The use of
spectrometry complicates the implementation of the model
and make difficult it use in common applications as dynamic
lighting control [15], [16], [17], but it is indisputable that may
be useful to add controlled CCT-models to such systems. This
paper presents a calibration methodology that estimates CCT
using a low-cost RGB sensor. For this, five sources groups
were characterized in order to estimate a matrix to transform
the sensor response from RGB space into a standardized XYZ
space, then such information can be transform into the
chromaticity coordinates and finally use the model of [12] to
determine the CCT value. The approach shows an error of less
than 6%. This initiative is framed in research work looking to
build simple models to improve automatic lighting features
and therefore color's perception in common environments and
quality control applications in industrial processes.
 II. MATERIALS AND METHODS input (SYNC), which allows precisely controlling integration
external sources.
Table 2 shows some important features of the TCS3414CS
A. LR1 – Broad spectral range spectrometer sensor. An internal filter eliminates the signal fluctuation due
to AC lighting flicker. External capacitor is not required.
1) Characteristic

The LR1 is a low cost spectrometer developed by ASEQ Table 2. TCS3414CS Characteristics
instruments with a TOSHIBA CCD (Charge Coupled Device) Characteristic Value Units
linear image sensor. The most relevant features are presented Sensor Photodiode
in Table 1. Clock frequency
A/D Resolution
Table 1. Characteristic LR1 Operating voltage
Characteristic Value Units
Supply Current ( )
Sensor
Operating temperature
Detector range
Communication
Pixels
Chanels R, G, B, clear
Pixel size
Pixel well depth
A/D Resolution C. Correlated Color Temperature (CCT)
Exposure time
CCD Reading time A Planckcian radiator is a theoretical object with zero
reflectance. Therefore, the spectral radiation of the body is
given by Planck's radiation law (1). Correlated Color
Temperature (CCT) represents the temperature of a black body
2) LR1 Calibration in Kelvin to have the same chromaticity of the light source
analyzed. The CCT was defined by the CIE, the definition
In order to verifying the calibration of the spectrometer the present in the "International Lighting Vocabulary" is: "Colour
wavelength of HeNe lasers was measured for 543nm (green) temperature: The temperature of a Planckian radiator whose
and 633nm (red). Figure 1 shows results. The data obtained radiation has the same chromaticity Given As That of a
were adjusted to the calibration of the spectrometer data. stimulus" [18].

Calibration
1
544.1 [nm]
633.2 [nm]
Normalized

0.5

(1)
0
400 600 800 1000
Wavelength -  [nm]
Figure 1. Calibration LR1

B. TCS3414CS
The TCS3414CS is a color sensor manufactured by Texas
Advanced Optoelectronic Solutions (TAOS). It contains an
8x2 array of filtered photodiodes, four of which have red
filters, four have blue filters, and four have green filters, the
remaining four are not filtered, as shown in Figure 2. Each of
the four sensor channels (Red, Green, Blue, Clear) delivers its
output in a format of 16 bits using I2C protocol information at
400 KHz. The gain of the analog converter and the integration
time are programmable. The sensor has a synchronization
D. CIE standard observer matching functions
The CIE , , and color matching functions
are curves representing numerically the response of an
observer as shown in Figure 3. These functions can be
regarded as the spectral sensitivity curves of three linear light
detectors, which produce the CIE tristimulus values , and
. The set of functions are known as the Standard Observer. In
[19], authors define the CIE standard colorimetric observer
tables that were used for the calculations in this paper.

978-1-4799-1121-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

 CIE standard observer color matching functions 2 deg III. RESULTS
2
Tristimulus value

Given that we have the spectral information from each

1.5 source analyzed, we built an independent database in order to
derive the real calculation of CCT using the equations
1
presented in (2), (3), and (4) and the CIE standard matching
0.5 functions. For this, we used the LR1 spectrometer to capture
and normalize the spectra of sunlight at noon for 6 different
0 days. The spectra are shown in Figure 4.
500 400 600 700 800
Wavelength -  [nm]
Figure 2. CIE standard observer color matching functions Sun
1

E. CIE 1931XYZ tristimulus of light source

Normalized
0.5
The CIE , and . coordinates of a light source can be
calculated using the Spectral Power Distribution (SPD) of the
source and with CIE standard observer matching functions.
The equations are presented in (2). In (2), is a constant for 0
normalized Y to 100. 400 500 600 700 800
Wavelength -  [nm]
Figure 3. Spectra of the Sun

After that, spectra for three fluorescent sources were

captured. We considered using a fluorescent source with high
CCT ( ). The spectra are shown in Figure 5.
(2)
Fluorescent sources
1
Normalized

0.5
With the , and . values can obtain the chromaticity
coordinates , . The equations are presented in (3).

0
400 500 600 700 800
Wavelength -  [nm]
Figure 4. Spectra of fluorescent sources
(3) We considered three different halogen sources
manufacturers, two spotlight-type ( ) and one
bulb-type ( ). The spectra are shown in Figure 6.

F. McCamy formula Halogen sources

1
McCamy equation was proposed in 1991 [12], it estimates
Normalized

color temperature from the chromaticity coordinates. The

equations presented in (4) 0.5

(4) 0
400 500 600 700 800
Wavelength -  [nm]
Figure 5. Spectra of halogen sources

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 Although incandescent sources have lost popularity Table 3. Dataset XYZ to RGB
because of their low luminous efficiency, we also included
two sets of them. The spectra are shown in Figure 7.
88 100 113 7650 116 255 182
101 100 32 3243 255 241 78
86 100 86 6179 149 255 165
85 100 83 6077 139 255 151
Incandescent sources
1 98 100 31 3378 255 199 88
99 100 30 3317 255 195 87
Normalized

104 100 36 3166 255 170 92

0.5 106 100 4 2623 255 173 46
87 100 91 6318 184 255 182
103 100 6 2775 255 174 42
0 109 100 22 2712 255 147 64
400 500 600 700 800
Wavelength -  [nm] 104 100 29 3041 255 164 77
Figure 6. Spectra of incandescent sources
89 100 77 5414 217 255 193
91 100 79 5312 232 255 198
91 100 79 5335 230 255 198
90 100 85 5688 222 255 210
Finally, we included the spectrum for four white LED.
LED's are perhaps the most important source of artificial light, 94 100 88 5491 239 255 216
nowadays [20]. The spectra are shown in Figure 8. 90 100 87 5770 221 255 212

With the information collected we can construct a

LED sources transformation model as shown in equation (5). Where the
1 vector represents the sensor output value (TCS3414CS).
Normalized

(5)
0.5

To calculate T, we use (6). Where represents

0 a matrix that is built with real CIE , and space and
400 500 600 700 800 a matrix that is constructed with the measured
Wavelength -  [nm] values in the RGB sensor (TCS3414CS) normalizing the
Figure 7. Spectra of LED sources output value to 255.

With the spectral information of each of the sources and (6)

using the equations shown in (2), (3) and (4), the CIE , and
values and the CCT were obtained. The output values for
RGB sensor were acquired at the same time with the spectra.
These data will be used to find the transformation matrix. In
Finally, Table 4 presents the results of applying the
Table 3 Columns , and are the actual values of
calculated matrix-transformation T over RGB sensor data in
characterization of each of the sources in the CIE , and
space, and is the CCT calculated from real values. order to calculate the value of CCT. The column represents
Columns , and represent the output values for the relative error between the real value of CCT and the value
TCS3414CS sensor. measured with TCS3414CS RGB sensor.

978-1-4799-1121-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

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