Hypotheses for chromatic opponency functions and their performance on classical psychophysical data

General hypothesis for the definition of chromatic-opponency functions are given in a black-box approach to the problem. It is supposed that the color signals in the visual color processing can be factorized into the product of the lightness times a pair of chromatic opponency functions and the whole chromatic processing consists of three independent processes: a linear transformation, a logarithmic compression, and a chromatic opponency actuation. The main chromatic opponency functions, obtainable by very general hypothesis on the symmetry and on the homogeneity degree, are supposed equal to the logarithms of tristimulus-value ratios in a proper reference frame of the tristimulus space. The perceptual chromatic functions, individually with uniform scales, are a linear mixing of the main chromatic opponency functions. The Bezold–Brucke hue shift is not considered. A performance of these hypothesis is successfully realized on the OSA-UCS system, for extra macula vision, and on the chromatic discrimination ellipses, for macular vision. Unique hues are derived from the main chromatic opponency functions of spectral lights. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 30, 31–41, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20072