Mambo: Calibrated Color Measurement for Database Matching by Bossa Nova Vision

13 December 2022

Discover the most viewed device on the Skinobs platforms in 2021

OVERVIEW

Professional colorists do not measure hair color in a standardized way – like L*a*b* values and CIELAB references – but usually compare it to a hair color catalogue (database). The MAMBO device has been developed to mimic expert professional colorist. MAMBO is a hand-held sensor that can be used on hair swatches or directly on the model head.

Connected to a computer, its dedicated software allows immediate hair color identification with higher accuracy than human perception (see below). Just place MAMBO on the swatch you want to characterize to automatically identify its color. MAMBO delivers the closest color match in the database already available, or your personal database that you would have entered beforehand. No adjustments are necessary for the operator : MAMBO will automatically configure itself for optimum measurement.

PRINCIPLE

There are several reasons as for why it is so difficult to correctly identify hair colors :

The color of the light illuminating the object affect the color perceived by the observer
The orientation of your light source and the geometry of your sample will affect how it reflects the incident light, and therefore, the color we perceive
The observer subjectivity and experience in assessing color

The MAMBO uses a specific geometry – a diffusive sphere – and a stable LED illumination that allows the user to always take color measurements in the same conditions. Moreover, the color-calibrated 12-bit camera enable a high-precision comparison of the color of the hair fibers measured and those in its databases without any subjectivity.

This comparison is done by calculating the minimum “color distance” between the sample color, extracted from the image taken by the camera, and all the color of the database.

A specific calibration allows the MAMBO to calculate the Lab color values from the RGB color values provided by the system. From those Lab values, it is then possible to calculate the DE* value that quantifies the perceived distance between to colors. This tool is of great use as a metric to measure, for example, hair color degradation.