Convert light frequency to RGB?

Question

Does anyone know of any formula for converting a light frequency to an RGB value?

Answer 1

Method 1

This is bit cleaned up and tested C++11 version of @haochen-xie. I also added a function that converts value 0 to 1 to a wavelength in visible spectrum that is usable with this method. You can just put below in one header file and use it without any dependencies. This version will be maintained here.

#ifndef common_utils_OnlineStats_hpp
#define common_utils_OnlineStats_hpp

namespace common_utils {

class ColorUtils {
public:

    static void valToRGB(double val0To1, unsigned char& r, unsigned char& g, unsigned char& b)
    {
        //actual visible spectrum is 375 to 725 but outside of 400-700 things become too dark
        wavelengthToRGB(val0To1 * (700 - 400) + 400, r, g, b);
    }

    /**
    * Convert a wavelength in the visible light spectrum to a RGB color value that is suitable to be displayed on a
    * monitor
    *
    * @param wavelength wavelength in nm
    * @return RGB color encoded in int. each color is represented with 8 bits and has a layout of
    * 00000000RRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGBBBBBBBB where MSB is at the leftmost
    */
    static void wavelengthToRGB(double wavelength, unsigned char& r, unsigned char& g, unsigned char& b) {
        double x, y, z;
        cie1931WavelengthToXYZFit(wavelength, x, y, z);
        double dr, dg, db;
        srgbXYZ2RGB(x, y, z, dr, dg, db);

        r = static_cast<unsigned char>(static_cast<int>(dr * 0xFF) & 0xFF);
        g = static_cast<unsigned char>(static_cast<int>(dg * 0xFF) & 0xFF);
        b = static_cast<unsigned char>(static_cast<int>(db * 0xFF) & 0xFF);
    }

    /**
    * Convert XYZ to RGB in the sRGB color space
    * <p>
    * The conversion matrix and color component transfer function is taken from http://www.color.org/srgb.pdf, which
    * follows the International Electrotechnical Commission standard IEC 61966-2-1 "Multimedia systems and equipment -
    * Colour measurement and management - Part 2-1: Colour management - Default RGB colour space - sRGB"
    *
    * @param xyz XYZ values in a double array in the order of X, Y, Z. each value in the range of [0.0, 1.0]
    * @return RGB values in a double array, in the order of R, G, B. each value in the range of [0.0, 1.0]
    */
    static void srgbXYZ2RGB(double x, double y, double z, double& r, double& g, double& b) {
        double rl = 3.2406255 * x + -1.537208  * y + -0.4986286 * z;
        double gl = -0.9689307 * x + 1.8757561 * y + 0.0415175 * z;
        double bl = 0.0557101 * x + -0.2040211 * y + 1.0569959 * z;

        r = srgbXYZ2RGBPostprocess(rl);
        g = srgbXYZ2RGBPostprocess(gl);
        b = srgbXYZ2RGBPostprocess(bl);
    }

    /**
    * helper function for {@link #srgbXYZ2RGB(double[])}
    */
    static double srgbXYZ2RGBPostprocess(double c) {
        // clip if c is out of range
        c = c > 1 ? 1 : (c < 0 ? 0 : c);

        // apply the color component transfer function
        c = c <= 0.0031308 ? c * 12.92 : 1.055 * std::pow(c, 1. / 2.4) - 0.055;

        return c;
    }

    /**
    * A multi-lobe, piecewise Gaussian fit of CIE 1931 XYZ Color Matching Functions by Wyman el al. from Nvidia. The
    * code here is adopted from the Listing 1 of the paper authored by Wyman et al.
    * <p>
    * Reference: Chris Wyman, Peter-Pike Sloan, and Peter Shirley, Simple Analytic Approximations to the CIE XYZ Color
    * Matching Functions, Journal of Computer Graphics Techniques (JCGT), vol. 2, no. 2, 1-11, 2013.
    *
    * @param wavelength wavelength in nm
    * @return XYZ in a double array in the order of X, Y, Z. each value in the range of [0.0, 1.0]
    */
    static void cie1931WavelengthToXYZFit(double wavelength, double& x, double& y, double& z) {
        double wave = wavelength;

        {
            double t1 = (wave - 442.0) * ((wave < 442.0) ? 0.0624 : 0.0374);
            double t2 = (wave - 599.8) * ((wave < 599.8) ? 0.0264 : 0.0323);
            double t3 = (wave - 501.1) * ((wave < 501.1) ? 0.0490 : 0.0382);

            x = 0.362 * std::exp(-0.5 * t1 * t1)
                + 1.056 * std::exp(-0.5 * t2 * t2)
                - 0.065 * std::exp(-0.5 * t3 * t3);
        }

        {
            double t1 = (wave - 568.8) * ((wave < 568.8) ? 0.0213 : 0.0247);
            double t2 = (wave - 530.9) * ((wave < 530.9) ? 0.0613 : 0.0322);

            y = 0.821 * std::exp(-0.5 * t1 * t1)
                + 0.286 * std::exp(-0.5 * t2 * t2);
        }

        {
            double t1 = (wave - 437.0) * ((wave < 437.0) ? 0.0845 : 0.0278);
            double t2 = (wave - 459.0) * ((wave < 459.0) ? 0.0385 : 0.0725);

            z = 1.217 * std::exp(-0.5 * t1 * t1)
                + 0.681 * std::exp(-0.5 * t2 * t2);
        }
    }

};

} //namespace

#endif

The plot of colors from 375nm to 725nm looks like below:

One issue with this method is the fact that it works only between 400-700nm and outside of that it sharply falls down to black. Another issue is narrower blue.

For comparison, below is the colors from Vision FAQ at maxmax.com:

I used this to visualize depth map where each pixel represents depth value in meters and this looks like below:

Method 2

This is implemented as part of bitmap_image single file header-only library by Aeash Partow:

inline rgb_t convert_wave_length_nm_to_rgb(const double wave_length_nm)
{
   // Credits: Dan Bruton http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/color.html
   double red   = 0.0;
   double green = 0.0;
   double blue  = 0.0;

   if ((380.0 <= wave_length_nm) && (wave_length_nm <= 439.0))
   {
      red   = -(wave_length_nm - 440.0) / (440.0 - 380.0);
      green = 0.0;
      blue  = 1.0;
   }
   else if ((440.0 <= wave_length_nm) && (wave_length_nm <= 489.0))
   {
      red   = 0.0;
      green = (wave_length_nm - 440.0) / (490.0 - 440.0);
      blue  = 1.0;
   }
   else if ((490.0 <= wave_length_nm) && (wave_length_nm <= 509.0))
   {
      red   = 0.0;
      green = 1.0;
      blue  = -(wave_length_nm - 510.0) / (510.0 - 490.0);
   }
   else if ((510.0 <= wave_length_nm) && (wave_length_nm <= 579.0))
   {
      red   = (wave_length_nm - 510.0) / (580.0 - 510.0);
      green = 1.0;
      blue  = 0.0;
   }
   else if ((580.0 <= wave_length_nm) && (wave_length_nm <= 644.0))
   {
      red   = 1.0;
      green = -(wave_length_nm - 645.0) / (645.0 - 580.0);
      blue  = 0.0;
   }
   else if ((645.0 <= wave_length_nm) && (wave_length_nm <= 780.0))
   {
      red   = 1.0;
      green = 0.0;
      blue  = 0.0;
   }

   double factor = 0.0;

   if ((380.0 <= wave_length_nm) && (wave_length_nm <= 419.0))
      factor = 0.3 + 0.7 * (wave_length_nm - 380.0) / (420.0 - 380.0);
   else if ((420.0 <= wave_length_nm) && (wave_length_nm <= 700.0))
      factor = 1.0;
   else if ((701.0 <= wave_length_nm) && (wave_length_nm <= 780.0))
      factor = 0.3 + 0.7 * (780.0 - wave_length_nm) / (780.0 - 700.0);
   else
      factor = 0.0;

   rgb_t result;

   const double gamma         =   0.8;
   const double intensity_max = 255.0;

   #define round(d) std::floor(d + 0.5)

   result.red   = static_cast<unsigned char>((red   == 0.0) ? red   : round(intensity_max * std::pow(red   * factor, gamma)));
   result.green = static_cast<unsigned char>((green == 0.0) ? green : round(intensity_max * std::pow(green * factor, gamma)));
   result.blue  = static_cast<unsigned char>((blue  == 0.0) ? blue  : round(intensity_max * std::pow(blue  * factor, gamma)));

   #undef round

   return result;
}

Plot of wavelength from 375-725nm looks like below:

So this is more usable in 400-725nm. When I visualize same depth map as in method 1, I get below. There is an obvious issue of those black lines which I think indicates minor bug in this code which I haven't looked more deeply. Also violets are bit narrower in this method which causes less contrast for far away objects.

Answer 2

General idea:

1. Use CEI color matching functions to convert wavelength to XYZ color.
2. Convert XYZ to RGB
3. Clip components to [0..1] and multiply by 255 to fit in the unsigned byte range.

Steps 1 and 2 may vary.

There are several color matching functions, available as tables or as analytic approximations (suggested by @Tarc and @Haochen Xie). Tables are best if you need a smooth preсise result.

There is no single RGB color space. Multiple transformation matrices and different kinds of gamma correction may be used.

Below is the C# code I came up with recently. It uses linear interpolation over the "CIE 1964 standard observer" table and sRGB matrix + gamma correction.

static class RgbCalculator {

    const int
         LEN_MIN = 380,
         LEN_MAX = 780,
         LEN_STEP = 5;

    static readonly double[]
        X = {
                0.000160, 0.000662, 0.002362, 0.007242, 0.019110, 0.043400, 0.084736, 0.140638, 0.204492, 0.264737,
                0.314679, 0.357719, 0.383734, 0.386726, 0.370702, 0.342957, 0.302273, 0.254085, 0.195618, 0.132349,
                0.080507, 0.041072, 0.016172, 0.005132, 0.003816, 0.015444, 0.037465, 0.071358, 0.117749, 0.172953,
                0.236491, 0.304213, 0.376772, 0.451584, 0.529826, 0.616053, 0.705224, 0.793832, 0.878655, 0.951162,
                1.014160, 1.074300, 1.118520, 1.134300, 1.123990, 1.089100, 1.030480, 0.950740, 0.856297, 0.754930,
                0.647467, 0.535110, 0.431567, 0.343690, 0.268329, 0.204300, 0.152568, 0.112210, 0.081261, 0.057930,
                0.040851, 0.028623, 0.019941, 0.013842, 0.009577, 0.006605, 0.004553, 0.003145, 0.002175, 0.001506,
                0.001045, 0.000727, 0.000508, 0.000356, 0.000251, 0.000178, 0.000126, 0.000090, 0.000065, 0.000046,
                0.000033
            },

        Y = {
                0.000017, 0.000072, 0.000253, 0.000769, 0.002004, 0.004509, 0.008756, 0.014456, 0.021391, 0.029497,
                0.038676, 0.049602, 0.062077, 0.074704, 0.089456, 0.106256, 0.128201, 0.152761, 0.185190, 0.219940,
                0.253589, 0.297665, 0.339133, 0.395379, 0.460777, 0.531360, 0.606741, 0.685660, 0.761757, 0.823330,
                0.875211, 0.923810, 0.961988, 0.982200, 0.991761, 0.999110, 0.997340, 0.982380, 0.955552, 0.915175,
                0.868934, 0.825623, 0.777405, 0.720353, 0.658341, 0.593878, 0.527963, 0.461834, 0.398057, 0.339554,
                0.283493, 0.228254, 0.179828, 0.140211, 0.107633, 0.081187, 0.060281, 0.044096, 0.031800, 0.022602,
                0.015905, 0.011130, 0.007749, 0.005375, 0.003718, 0.002565, 0.001768, 0.001222, 0.000846, 0.000586,
                0.000407, 0.000284, 0.000199, 0.000140, 0.000098, 0.000070, 0.000050, 0.000036, 0.000025, 0.000018,
                0.000013
            },

        Z = {
                0.000705, 0.002928, 0.010482, 0.032344, 0.086011, 0.197120, 0.389366, 0.656760, 0.972542, 1.282500,
                1.553480, 1.798500, 1.967280, 2.027300, 1.994800, 1.900700, 1.745370, 1.554900, 1.317560, 1.030200,
                0.772125, 0.570060, 0.415254, 0.302356, 0.218502, 0.159249, 0.112044, 0.082248, 0.060709, 0.043050,
                0.030451, 0.020584, 0.013676, 0.007918, 0.003988, 0.001091, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000,
                0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000,
                0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000,
                0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000,
                0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000,
                0.000000
            };

    static readonly double[]
        MATRIX_SRGB_D65 = {
             3.2404542, -1.5371385, -0.4985314,
            -0.9692660,  1.8760108,  0.0415560,
             0.0556434, -0.2040259,  1.0572252
        };

    public static byte[] Calc(double len) {
        if(len < LEN_MIN || len > LEN_MAX)
            return new byte[3];

        len -= LEN_MIN;
        var index = (int)Math.Floor(len / LEN_STEP);
        var offset = len - LEN_STEP * index;

        var x = Interpolate(X, index, offset);
        var y = Interpolate(Y, index, offset);
        var z = Interpolate(Z, index, offset);

        var m = MATRIX_SRGB_D65;

        var r = m[0] * x + m[1] * y + m[2] * z;
        var g = m[3] * x + m[4] * y + m[5] * z;
        var b = m[6] * x + m[7] * y + m[8] * z;

        r = Clip(GammaCorrect_sRGB(r));
        g = Clip(GammaCorrect_sRGB(g));
        b = Clip(GammaCorrect_sRGB(b));

        return new[] { 
            (byte)(255 * r),
            (byte)(255 * g),
            (byte)(255 * b)
        };
    }

    static double Interpolate(double[] values, int index, double offset) {
        if(offset == 0)
            return values[index];

        var x0 = index * LEN_STEP;
        var x1 = x0 + LEN_STEP;
        var y0 = values[index];
        var y1 = values[1 + index];

        return y0 + offset * (y1 - y0) / (x1 - x0);
    }

    static double GammaCorrect_sRGB(double c) {
        if(c <= 0.0031308)
            return 12.92 * c;

        var a = 0.055;
        return (1 + a) * Math.Pow(c, 1 / 2.4) - a;
    }

    static double Clip(double c) {
        if(c < 0)
            return 0;
        if(c > 1)
            return 1;
        return c;
    }
}

Result for the 400-700 nm range: