Research Interests

Overview

My interest in colour spans chemistry, physics, physiology, psychology, philosophy, computer science, and design. In order to really understand colour some appreciation (at least) of all of these fields of study is required. My research interests are broad but include theoretical and applied colour science, vision (psychophysics and modelling), digital-image processing, characterization of imaging devices (cameras, VDUs etc) and perception. Since I have been in the School of Design at Leeds I have increasingly become interested in the use of colour in design. I enoy collaborating with other academics and with industry. My main collaborators are Professor David Foster (University of Manchester), Professor Ronnier Luo (University of Leeds), Dr Katia Ripamonti (University College London), Dr Huw Owens (University of Manchester) and Dr Vien Cheung (University of Leeds). You can see a full list of my publications (and other academic achievements) by clicking on papers at the top of this page. Many of the papers can be downloaded as pdf files.

Some Current Projects

• Measuring Tooth Colour (working with Colgate)
• Cross-Media Image Assessment (working with Xerox)
• Image Quality in Plasma Display Devices (working with Samsung)
• Recipe Prediction for Wood (Colormatch - FP6 European Project)
• Colour Design Technology
• Colour Harmony

Research Students

Past

• ARH Heptinstall, MPhil, completed 1999 - perception of lightness differences
• I Castellarin, Laurea (Italy, MPhil equivalent), completed 2000 (second supervisor) - colour statistics of surfaces
• HC Owens, PhD, completed 2002 - spatiochromatic processing in humans and machines
• C Ripamonti, PhD, completed 2002 - perception of transparency
• SY Zhu, PhD, completed 2002 (second supervisor) - uniform colour spaces for image applications
• DR Connah, PhD, completed 2004 - multispectral imaging
• R Summers, PhD, completed 2005 (second supervisor) - natural image statistics
• S Bouzit, PhD, completed 2004 (second supervisor) - image quality assessment
• V Cheung, PhD, completed 2004 colour camera characterization
• L Iovine, PhD, completed 2005 recipe prediction with neural networks
• SMM Lee, PhD (Hong Kong), completed 2004 (second supervisor) - image difference metrics
• Q Chen, PhD, completed 2006 - multispectral imaging

Present

• A Gatt, PhD, current - cross-media colour reproduction
• W Luo, PhD, current - assessment of tooth colour
• F Mahyar, PhD, current - colour harmony
• PM Henry, PhD, current - colour design technology
• C Paisley, PhD, current (second supervisor) - colour in dentistry
• DG Lee, PhD, current (second supervisor) - image quality model for flat panel display
• YJ Kim, PhD, current (second supervisor) - developing image quality enhancement algorithm on displays
• JJ Yoo, PhD, current (second supervisor) - image quality for displays
• JS Kim, PhD, current (second supervisor) - colour appearance modelling for moving images

If you wish to talk to me about any of my interests the best way to begin is by email.

Stephen Westland