How Visual Discomfort Is Affected by Colour Saturation: A fNIRS Study

The wide colour gamut displays have improved the viewing experience greatly. However, highly saturated colours may also bring problems such as visual discomfort. In this study, the influence of colour saturation on visual discomfort is investigated. Visual stimuli sequences with different images and saturation levels were presented in subjective and objective experiments. The scores of image quality, visual comfort, and preference were collected in questionnaires. The peak amplitude of heamodynamic response was extracted from fNIRS. The results show that, in the mid saturation level, subjective evaluation on visual discomfort was the lowest and the smallest peak amplitude of heamodynamic response was observed. While the image quality and preference increased as the saturation increased. For wide colour gamut displays, the visual discomfort induced by highly saturated colours should be taken into consideration.