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. 2020 Oct 28;15(10):e0240356.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240356. eCollection 2020.

Perceptual holistic color combination analysis of Papilionidae butterflies as aesthetic objects

Erina Kakehashi  1 , Keiichi Muramatsu  2 , Haruo Hibino  3
Affiliations

Perceptual holistic color combination analysis of Papilionidae butterflies as aesthetic objects

Erina Kakehashi et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

In this study, we clarified the holistic color combination rules of human-preferred Papilionidae butterflies by examining the hue, lightness, and chroma. A set of 118 Papilionidae butterfly images used in our previous study was analyzed. These images were classified via hierarchical density-based spatial clustering based on perceptual similarities of colors that were obtained from a subjective image classification experiment. The color combinations of the clustered images were determined based on representative colors that were analyzed by a Gaussian mixture model with minimum message length and the color combination types defined in our previous study. Consequently, we obtained the following holistic color combination rules for Papilionidae: 1) contrasting lightness, similar chroma, and similar hue, 2) contrasting lightness, contrasting chroma, and similar hue, 3) similar lightness, similar chroma, and complementary hue, and 4) similar lightness, similar chroma, and similar hue. These rules suggest that minority color harmony theories are valid under particular conditions.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. 118 images of butterflies of the Papilionidae family.
The corresponding code numbers are included with each image.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Experimental environment.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Experiment window.
(a) Folder area on the left monitor. (b) Thumbnail images displayed on the right monitor.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Simplified dendrogram showing 24 clusters of 118 images obtained by HDBSCAN.
The eps value shows the value of the epsilon neighborhood parameter. The width of the viatical line shows the number of points (images) in the cluster. Blue rectangles show each cluster. Gray dotted-rectangle shows the images removed as noise.
Fig 5
Fig 5
Relative frequencies of (a) L*, (b) C*ab, and (c) hab categories in color combination pattern 1.
Fig 6
Fig 6
Relative frequencies of (a) L*, (b) C*ab, and (c) hab categories in color combination pattern 2.
Fig 7
Fig 7
Relative frequencies of (a) L*, (b) C*ab, and (c) hab categories in color combination pattern 3.
Fig 8
Fig 8
Relative frequencies of (a) L*, (b) C*ab, and (c) hab categories in color combination pattern 4.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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