The similarity, however, ends there. A photographic lens with the optical quality of the human eye would be scorned by photographers. As an image passes through the eye, the light is greatly scattered and attenuated. It is as though a battered, old, cheap camera lens were attached to the world's fastest and most powerful computer. Among the visual system attributes important to architectural lighting are acuity and color perception.
Acuity is the ability to distinguish the fine details critical to tasks such as reading and writing.
Color perception is the ability to distinguish and interpret different wavelengths of light. Since light is visually evaluated electromagnetic radiation, it is fundamentally the same phenomenon as x-rays, radio and television waves, and electricity. So color is not the property of an object, but is the visual system's varying response to light of different wavelengths. Each object in the room will absorb different proportions of each of these wavelengths and reflect the rest of the light toward the viewer. So an object that absorbs all of the shorter wavelengths and reflects the longer wavelengths will be perceived as red.