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Topic · Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Color Science and Applications

Color Science and Applications is a research topic within Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics. Science Explorer counts 25k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on research related to color constancy, colorimetry, spectral reflectance, illuminant estimation, halftoning, LED lighting, spectral imaging, gamut mapping, and the application of neural networks in color science.

  • Color Constancy
  • Colorimetry
  • Spectral Reflectance
  • Illuminant Estimation
  • Halftoning
  • Reflectance Reconstruction
  • LED Lighting
  • Spectral Imaging
  • Gamut Mapping
  • Neural Networks
Research works
25k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+3%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
42% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Color Science and Applications

Which countries lead Color Science and Applications research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (798 and 348 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 798 works
  2. 2 United States 348 works
  3. 3 Japan 165 works
  4. 4 India 129 works
  5. 5 Germany 105 works
  6. 6 South Korea 102 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 98 works
  8. 8 Taiwan 62 works
  9. 9 France 62 works
  10. 10 Türkiye 47 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 41.7%United States: 18.1%Japan: 8.6%India: 6.7%6 others listed: 24.9%42%largest
China798 · 41.7%United States348 · 18.1%Japan165 · 8.6%India129 · 6.7%6 others listed476 · 24.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Color Science and Applications research?

By volume in 2022-now, North Carolina State University publishes the most Color Science and Applications research, followed by BOE Technology Group (China) and Zhejiang University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 North Carolina State UniversityUnited States 56 works
  2. 2 BOE Technology Group (China)China 30 works
  3. 3 Zhejiang UniversityChina 24 works
  4. 4 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 24 works
  5. 5 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 23 works
  6. 6 University of ZagrebCroatia 17 works
  7. 7 Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyNorway 15 works
  8. 8 Zhejiang Sci-Tech UniversityChina 15 works
  9. 9 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 14 works
  10. 10 San’an Optoelectronics (China)China 13 works

Who are the leading researchers in Color Science and Applications?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Color Science and Applications include Daniel J. Kahneman, Karl John Friston and Andrew Zisserman.

  1. 1 Daniel J. Kahneman United States 395k citations
  2. 2 Karl John Friston United Kingdom 310k citations
  3. 3 Andrew Zisserman United Kingdom 255k citations
  4. 4 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  5. 5 Trevor J. Darrell United States 206k citations
  6. 6 David Julian McClements United States 185k citations
  7. 7 Luc Van Gool Switzerland 177k citations
  8. 8 Jitendra Malik United States 170k citations
  9. 9 Han Zhang China 161k citations
  10. 10 Anil Kumar Jain United States 160k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Color Science and Applications?

The most cited paper in Color Science and Applications is "Theory of edge detection" (David G. Marr, Ellen C. Hildreth, 1980), with 6,259 citations. Next come "Color indexing" (5,627) and "Uncertainty relation for resolution in space, spatial frequency, and orientation optimized by two-dimensional visual cortical filters" (3,235).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Theory of edge detection David G. Marr, Ellen C. Hildreth · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences 29 Feb 1980 6,259
2 Color indexing Michael J. Swain, Dana H. Ballard · International Journal of Computer Vision Nov 1991 5,627
3 Uncertainty relation for resolution in space, spatial frequency, and orientation optimized by two-dimensional visual cortical filters John G. Daugman · Journal of the Optical Society of America A Jul 1985 3,235
4 Visual Feature Integration and the Temporal Correlation Hypothesis Wolf Singer, Charles Montgomery Gray · Annual Review of Neuroscience Mar 1995 3,194
5 A multiscale retinex for bridging the gap between color images and the human observation of scenes Daniel J. Jobson, Zia Ur Rahman, Glenn A. Woodell · IEEE Transactions on Image Processing Jul 1997 3,055
All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Color Science and Applications research done?

The largest centres of Color Science and Applications research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Tokyo (Japan) and Raleigh (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Raleigh.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 153 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 77 works
  3. 3 TokyoJapan 58 works
  4. 4 RaleighUnited States 56 works
  5. 5 HangzhouChina 53 works
  6. 6 SeoulSouth Korea 53 works
  7. 7 NanjingChina 43 works
  8. 8 WuhanChina 35 works
  9. 9 TianjinChina 31 works
  10. 10 GuangzhouChina 28 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. RaleighUS · 55.5 works34×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Color Science and Applications than the world average.

See Color Science and Applications on the map

Where is the best place to study Color Science and Applications?

Among universities, judged by research, North Carolina State University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Peking University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 13.56%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Peking UniversityUniversity of LeedsNorth Carolina State…Hong Kong Polytechni…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1North Carolina State UniversityUnited States 73.111.3%44.8×56 +550.7%
2Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 57.410.7%7.3×14 -5.2%
3Peking UniversityChina 56.922.0%2.4×11 +212.4%
4University of LeedsUnited Kingdom 54.912.6%10.1×13 +7.5%
5Donghua UniversityChina 53.715.1%13.9×12 +21.9%
6Zhejiang UniversityChina 50.215.6%4.0×24 -18.6%
7Zhejiang Sci-Tech UniversityChina 49.810.3%21.7×15 +88.9%
8Fudan UniversityChina 47.718.2%2.8×10 +145.3%
9University of ZagrebCroatia 45.99.3%11.0×17 +5.4%
10Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyNorway 43.510.5%12.0×15 -14.6%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Color Science and Applications, country by country

Is Color Science and Applications research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 3% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2010. The fastest-growing topics are Color Science and Applications.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Color Science and Applications as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.013% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Color Science and Applications0.010% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Color Science and Applications over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Color Science and Applications10.2% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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