Patent ID: 7262854

Claim:
A multi-angle colorimeter comprising: one or plural illuminators for illuminating a surface of an object to be measured from one or plural directions and for measuring a colorimetric value of the surface of the object; one or plural light receivers for receiving reflected light from the surface illuminated by said one or plural illuminators respectively, and for measuring a colorimetric value of the surface of the object; a reflection characteristics calculator for calculating a reflectance characteristics of the surface for plural directions of illumination or light receiving; an angular error detector for detecting an angular error of the illuminators and the light receivers with respect to the surface, and comprising a measurement system different from the illuminators and the light receivers; an approximation function setter for determining an approximation function that approximates a directional dependence of the reflectance characteristics of the surface based on the detected angular error and the reflection characteristics obtained by said reflection characteristics calculator; a reflection characteristics error estimator for estimating an error of the reflection characteristics in each measurement direction based on the determined approximation function and the detected angular error; and a corrector for correcting the obtained reflection characteristics in each measurement direction based on the estimated reflection characteristics error.