Why can’t my mobile phone do the same thing as the NODE+chromaPro?

Variable, Inc. Customer Support -

The main reason is that the sensor in the NODE mimics how the human eye sees color as well as eliminating all external lighting conditions while providing its own, controlled light source. If you have it - scan while looking in the end, you'll see the light source flash. For instance - taking a photo of a conference room wall. You may see the light from the windows shining in and other places there may be shadows and on the left wall from the corner... there are a multitude of colors. With the NODE, you can scan multiple points, under any lighting conditions and get the same result. The accurate color. This eliminates any external shadows in dark areas and washed out colors in direct sunlight and provides the accurate measurement.

Technical Details

The NODE+chromaPro is a color measurement specific system. As per CIE standards, in order to provide an accurate color measurement, you have to have a very accurate measurement (ie- complete control) over the illuminating conditions of your measurement. Only when you have that - are you able to integrate over the standard observer curves and provide a true color reading. This is very unlike phones, where the phone has to estimate light as it's reading something it has no control over, this is why in the best case, the phone might guess the reference illuminant accurately, and in the worst case..., you have "the dress is blue" failure.

Beyond just reference illuminant, every NODE+chromaPro is calibrated specifically in order to measure color accurately using multiple patented processes, and measured / compared against reference grade spectrometers (yes, the kind that retail for far more than it would cost to buy multiple "reasonably priced cars").

Beyond the accuracy of NODE+chromaPro in general color measurement, the Chroma system is then also directly loaded with customer scan sets, so that it's able to accurately detect specifically known colors. This enables Chroma to detect our Tata supported colors with incredible accuracy as the Chroma system has been designed and loaded specifically for detecting Tata colors.

As Chroma is purpose built to measure color by creating its own light controlled environment, then calibrated and tested to ensure accuracy against laboratory grade equipment, and finally specifically tuned for our colors, the color accuracy is on a completely different level than that of a standard camera.

Have more questions? Submit a request