Limitations of color constancy

Theories of adaptation, such as those based on the proportionality law of von Kries, provide detailed predictions concerning perception of object colors when illuminant spectral power distribution is changed. Since these predictions depart from the simple ideal of color constancy, a question arises of the relationships among data, theories, and the ideal of constancy. Projecting the data of a constancy experiment into an opponent-color system indicates that constancy tends to hold well for illuminant shifts in the blue–yellow direction but less well for shifts in the red–green direction. This observation is consistent with a theory based on von Kries adaptation.