color checkColor Check: (IPToolColorCheck)

The Color Check tool allows you to measure how close a color is to a trained (reference) color.

Using the Color Check Tool

When the Color Check tool is dragged onto a sequence/playlist a small green box will appear on the viewer window. (When selected this box will turn red.) This box can be moved and resized over any area in the viewer window.
 
To train a color to use as your reference point, drag the box over the color you wish to select.  To train the selected color, right-click the Color Check tool icon in the playlist and choose "Train".


Now that you have trained your color you can move your selection box to another part of the screen to do a color check.  [This is only to allow you to understand how the color check works.  In a typical program you would be grabbing live images and running the test over and over in roughly the same area.] 

The results are given in the color tab of the Color Check tool property page.  The color that you trained to be your reference point is shown numerically in the Train column and the color you just selected to compare is shown in the sample column.  The "Distance" box shows how different the two colors are.  The higher the distance number the greater the color difference. A distance of "0.0" is a perfect match.  Note: Results will not be displayed unless a Color Space is selected.

Color Space

The color can be analyzed according to a number of different color spaces.  In this case I have used the standard RGB color space.  Each color space has its own mathematical formula for determining the numeric value of a given color.  Automation Manager has integrated several different color spaces that you can use to meet whatever needs you have.  The color spaces are:
RGB
HSI
CIE - 3 variants
CMY
LUV
LAB
XYZ
HSV
HSL
ness (created by Soft-Automation)