Color rendering capacity of light sources

By Xu He (H. Xu), 2009/2/3, misterxu@tom.com

Given several light sources that are identical in luminous flux but
different in spectral composition, which of them can vividly render
the largest number of colors? How large on earth is the maximum
number of the colors that can be rendered by a given light source?
These questions touch a particular aspect of the color rendering quality
of light sources, an aspect concerned with the number of the colors that
can be vividly rendered by a light source. For answering these
questions, it is helpful to have a relevant measure.
The color rendering capacity is a measure of how many colors
can be rendered by a given light source. If people want to know
whether a given light source is capable of rendering a great number of
widely different colors, just calculate the color rendering capacity for
the light source and see whether a high value can result. The color
rendering capacity of a light source gives a figure proportional to the
total number of the colors that can be rendered by that kind of light
source with one unit luminous flux. The greater the color rendering
capacity of a light source, the larger the number of the colors that can
be vividly rendered by that kind of light source.
The process for calculating the color rendering capacity of a
light source is as follows:
1) Using spectral reflectance curves of the type that are a single
reflecting band or absorbing band and have the spectral reflectance
of either 0.0 or 1.0, in conjunction with a light source of given
spectral power distribution, calculate the chromaticities for which
the luminance factor Y has a specified value between 0.0 and 1.0.

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2) All of these calculated chromaticities form a closed locus defining a
plane area in the L*u*v* coordinate system. This plane area is the
maximum range occupied by the chromaticities that can be produced
with the specified value of luminance factor Y (a specified value of
L* between 0 and 100) under the given light source.
3) Calculate every area of this kind, each being associated with one
specified value of L* between 0 and 100. All these areas can then be
piled up to form a color solid in the L*u*v* color space.
4) The sum of all these areas can, approximately, give the volume of the
color solid. This volume corresponds to the total number of the colors
that can be rendered by the given light source with one unit luminous
flux.
5) A value proportional to the volume of the color solid can be taken as
the color rendering capacity of the light source of given spectral
power distribution. For reference, the volume of the color solid for an
equal-energy spectral power distribution is defined as having a color
rendering capacity of 1.00.
A simplified version of software CRC99 for quickly calculating
the color rendering capacity of any light source can be downloaded
from the following web address:
http://colorrendering.hostinplace.com

The figure attached below shows an example of the CRC99 calculation

results.

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