The smartphone for colorimetry: performance characterization

A smartphone has been characterized as colorimeter, using both the built-in camera and a clip-on dispersive grating. Certified colorimetric samples provided by Labsphere® were considered as test samples. Color measurements directly performed by means of the smartphone camera only were obtained using the “RGB Detector” App, downloaded from the Google Play Store. More precise measurements were obtained by means of the commercially available GoSpectro grating and related App. In both cases, in order to quantify the reliability and sensitivity of smartphone-based color measurements, the CIELab color difference ΔE between the certified and smartphone-measured colors were calculated, and are reported in this paper. Also, as an example of practical application of interest for the textile industry, several samples of cloth fabrics with a palette of the most common colors were analyzed, and the comparison with the certified color values are presented.