Abstract
Whenever the eye views a spatially-varying gradient of luminance, the Mach bands arise, causing a subjective distribution different from the luminance distribution of the field of view. This phenomenon has been used for the determination of the contrast-transfer function of the visual system when working under normal viewing conditions, i.e., operating in a region where both luminance and detail size are well above threshold. The Mach bands have been measured by making subjective photometric comparisons and the data have been analyzed under the assumption of linearity of response to input. The hypothesis that the visual system may be treated as an approximately linear link in the imaging chain is satisfied best when the luminances are plotted logarithmically. The possibility of this type of investigation is discussed. The result found is compared with apparent subjective contrast measurements of a sine-wave spatial luminance distribution.
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Bryngdahl, O. Visual transfer characteristics from Mach band measurements. Kybernetik 2, 71–77 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288560
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288560