Patent ID: 8407014

Claim:
A method for producing one or more matching formulas for matching color and appearance of a target coating containing flakes, said method comprising the steps of: a) obtaining appearance data of the target coating; b) comparing the appearance data with appearance characteristics of known flakes stored in a flake database; c) selecting from said flake database, one or more matched flakes, flake combinations or flake ratios that have appearance characteristics matching said appearance data; d) obtaining color data of the target coating; e) comparing said color data with color characteristics of one or more colorant combinations of known colorants stored in a color database to select from said color database, one or more colorant combinations that have color characteristics matching said color data; f) determining colorant concentrations of each said known colorant of said colorant combinations and said flake concentrations of each of the match flakes, the flake combinations or the flake ratios; g) producing said one or more matching formulas according to said colorant concentrations and said flake concentrations, wherein match coatings resulted from said matching formulas have color characteristics matching the color data and appearance characteristics matching the appearance data; and wherein the step a) comprises: i) obtaining one or more target images of the target coating at at least one pre-set illumination intensity using an imaging device; and ii) generating appearance data by measuring characteristics of the target coating from said target images; wherein said appearance data comprise appearance features comprising a set of bright features from bright areas of said target image having image intensity level equal to or greater than a first threshold level, a set of intermediate features from intermediate areas of the target image having image intensity level equal to or greater than a second threshold level, and a set of dark features, wherein pixels or regions of pixels from dark areas of the target image having image intensity below a third threshold level where the target coating is essentially free of detectable objects are identified as said dark features; wherein said third threshold level is lower than said first and said second threshold levels.