Colorlab introduces Dr. Byeongjin Kim’s (김병진) latest poster, “Perceived White Point in Virtual Reality Under Different Ambient Lighting Conditions,” presented at the 26th International Meeting on Information Display (IMID 2026). This study investigates how the surrounding visual environment in virtual reality influences what users perceive as white.

Unlike conventional displays, head-mounted displays largely replace the physical environment with a rendered visual field, raising questions about how perceptual white is established in immersive environments. In an experiment with 34 participants using a Meta Quest 3 headset, the study examined combinations of ambient color temperature and luminance together with different luminance levels of a central test patch. The results showed that perceived white systematically shifted with the color temperature of the virtual ambient field, but within a much narrower range than the change in ambient lighting itself. Ambient color temperature and luminance mainly influenced the CCT of the perceived white point, while target luminance affected its Duv. These findings demonstrate that white perception in VR depends on both the surrounding virtual environment and the visual characteristics of the target, suggesting that VR color management should consider contextual adaptation rather than relying on a single fixed white point.