The Physics and Psychology of Colour – with Andrew Hanson

Our experience of colour is a based on the physics of light, but Andrew Hanson uses demos and optical illusions to show that there is a lot more to colour than meets the eye.
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Colour informs, influences consumer choices, warns us and comforts us. But how do we ascribe numbers to a human perception which is incredibly versatile and variable? Andrew Hanson will elaborate on his own work in the field of colour measurement.

For 25 years Andrew Hanson has been professionally measuring colour, from evaluating the appearance of ornamental plants, to building the world’s first national standards telespectroradiometer to calibrate the colour of visual display units and a machine to measure the shininess of cats. He is currently Outreach Manager and Occasional Senior Scientist at the National Physical Laboratory, the UK’s National Measurement Institute and is past Chairman of the Colour Group of Great Britain.

This talk was filmed in the Ri on 19 March 2018.


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