VPMODEL

VPMODEL is the product of the research project " Why Do Animals Have the Color Visions that They Have".

ABSTRACT:

Models are integrated to predict the irradiances of different natural environment (mainly natural water) of animals defined by some readily measurable parameters. The spectral radiances of different targets are calculated accordingly. The animal vision system is modeled to predict discriminability of targets based on using chromaticity or luminosity to discriminate among objects or distinguish targets from the background. The optimal pairs of visual pigments of photoreceptors of two cone vision system are found for different combinations of environment and targets according the model. They are close to the measured visual pigments of those animals living in a similar environment. The optimal pairs of visual pigments largely depend on the optical characteristics of environment, much less depend on targets. A color space for animals based upon their visual pigment composition is established. This allows visualization of the color world of any animal if their visual pigment composition is known. A software application is developed to accomplish all the computation and visualization of this modeling work. It calculates and visualizes the spectral irradiances or radiances of environment and targets with different properties and under different conditions, spectral absorptances of visual pigment with different maximum absorption wavelengths and different structures, photon catches of photoreceptors, chromaticity, luminosity, discriminability based on chromaticity or luminosity, CIE chart, targets distribution in CIE chart, targets’ appearance under standard white light or in a defined environment, a color space solely based on visual pigment composition, the color appearance of any target for an animal with determined visual pigment composition. This software application can be used as a tool to do a wide range of modeling work in this field.
 

Some snap shots of VPMODEL.

Click here to download VPMODEL

Click here to download the dissertation