Color Vision and the Four-Color-Map Problem
- 1 March 2000
- journal article
- Published by MIT Press in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Vol. 12 (2) , 233-237
- https://doi.org/10.1162/089892900562011
Abstract
Four different colors are needed to make maps that avoid adjacent countries of the same color. Because the retinal image is two dimensional, like a map, four dimensions of chromatic experience would also be needed to optimally distinguish regions returning spectrally different light to the eye. We therefore suggest that the organization of human color vision according to four-color classes (reds, greens, blues, and yellows) has arisen as a solution to this logical requirement in topology.Keywords
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Representation of Colors in the Blind, Color-Blind, and Normally SightedPsychological Science, 1992
- Molecular Genetics of Inherited Variation in Human Color VisionScience, 1986
- Recent advances in retinex theoryVision Research, 1986
- Visibility of borders: separate and combined effects of color differences, luminance contrast, and luminance levelJournal of the Optical Society of America, 1981
- The Solution of the Four-Color-Map ProblemScientific American, 1977
- Special announcementDiscrete Mathematics, 1976
- An opponent-process theory of color vision.Psychological Review, 1957