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I have access to a colour changing lightbulb system (Philips Hue). Because the light does not use RGB LEDs internally, it's hard to predict the colour you will get out of the light when you use the API. I'd like to measure the colour of the light in an attempt to improve the way they are driven by some software I am writing and to get an idea of the colour space they cover. Why nothing will be truely accurate, I wondered if a colorimeter used to colour calibrate a monitor would be useful. However, I can't tell if any of the commercially available systems actually provide an API to read values directly from the device.

Does anyone know of a colorimeter with a public API?

Rahul
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Max Palmer
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2 Answers2

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Note that there are also some functions that can convert RGB to values you can use for your Philips Hue lamps.

See for example: https://github.com/Q42/Q42.HueApi/blob/master/src/Q42.HueApi/HueColorConverter.cs

If you need it in another language you could port the function or check out one of the other api's:

https://github.com/Q42/hue-libs

Christiaan
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  • Christiaan, have you used the colour conversion routines there. Are they any good? How do they cope with the lack of a decent deep green / blue? – Max Palmer Jan 21 '13 at 12:43
  • I believe that function is ported from the official iOS app. It is a big table which tries to map the possible colors as accurately as possible. I have not seen any problems with green or blue with the current lights. If you use other types of lights (like the living colors bulbs for example) the colors are a bit off though. – Christiaan Jan 21 '13 at 19:03
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Here are a couple of ideas that should get you started; all of them are open source: 1) and educational colorimeter kit here 2) iorodeo 3) an article about colorimeter ideas 4) alternative consideration: using a camera

I hope some of this is helpful. CHEERS!

Community
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happy coder
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