A more natural color representation: Is it possible to convert RGBA color to a single float value?

Question

Is it possible to represent an RGBA color to a single value that resembles the retinal stimulation? The idea is something like:

• 0.0 value for black (no stimulation)
• 1.0 for white (full stimulation)

The RGBA colors in between should be represented by values that capture the amount of stimulation they cause to the eye like:

• a very light yellow should have a very high value
• a very dark brown should have a low value

Any ideas on this? Is converting to grayscale the only solution?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Assign specific bits of a single number to each part of RGBA to represent your number. If each part is 8 bits, the first 8 bits can be assigned to R, the second 8 bits to G, the third 8 bits to B, and the final 8 bits to A.

Let's say your RGBA values are= 15,4,2,1. And each one is given 4 bits. In binary, R is 1111, G is 0100, B is 0010, A is 0001. In a simple concatenation, your final number would be 1111010000100001 in binary, which is 62497. To get G out of this, 62497 / 256, round it to an integer, then modulo 16. 256 is 16 to the second power because it is the 2nd position past the first from the right(R would need third power, B would need first power). 16 is 2 to the fourth power because I used 4 bits. 62497 / 256 = 244, 244 % 16 = 4.