Data from: Image Calibration and Analysis Toolbox – a free software suite for measuring reflectance, colour, and pattern objectively and to animal vision

1. Quantitative measurements of colour, pattern, and morphology are vital to a growing range of disciplines. Digital cameras are readily available and already widely used for making these measurements, having numerous advantages over other techniques, such as spectrometry. However, off-the-shelf consumer cameras are designed to produce images for human viewing, meaning that their uncalibrated photographs cannot be used for making reliable, quantitative measurements. Many studies still fail to appreciate this, and of those scientists who are aware of such issues, many are hindered by a lack usable tools for making objective measurements from photographs. 2. We have developed an image processing toolbox that generates images that are linear with respect to radiance from the RAW files of numerous camera brands, and can combine image channels from multispectral cameras, including additional ultraviolet photographs. Images are then normalised using one or more grey standards to control for lighting conditions. This enables objective measures of reflectance and colour using a wide range of consumer cameras. Furthermore, if the camera's spectral sensitivities are known, the software can convert images to correspond to the visual system (cone-catch values) of a wide range of animals, enabling human and non-human visual systems to be modelled. The toolbox also provides image analysis tools that can extract luminance (lightness), colour, and pattern information. Furthermore, all processing is performed on 32-bit floating point images rather than commonly used 8-bit images. This increases precision and reduces the likelihood of data loss through rounding error or saturation of pixels, while also facilitating the measurement of objects with shiny or fluorescent properties. 3. All cameras tested using this software were found to demonstrate a linear response within each image and across a range of exposure times. Cone-catch mapping functions were highly robust, converting images to several animal visual systems and yielding data that agreed closely with spectrometer-based estimates. 4. Our imaging toolbox is freely available as an addition to the open source ImageJ software. We believe that it will considerably enhance the appropriate use of digital cameras across multiple areas of biology, in particular researchers aiming to quantify animal and plant visual signals.1. 颜色、图案与形态特征的定量测量，在日益增多的学科领域中均具有核心价值。数码相机唾手可得，且已被广泛应用于此类测量，相较于光谱法（spectrometry）等其他技术，具备诸多显著优势。然而，市售消费级相机的设计目标是生成供人类观看的图像，这意味着其未校准的照片无法用于开展可靠的定量测量。当前仍有大量研究未意识到这一局限，而即便知晓该问题的科研人员，也常因缺乏可从照片中获取客观测量数据的可用工具而受阻。 2. 我们开发了一款图像处理工具箱，可基于众多品牌相机的RAW格式文件（RAW）生成具有辐射度线性响应的图像，还能整合多光谱相机（multispectral cameras）的图像通道，包括额外拍摄的紫外照片。随后可通过一个或多个灰阶标准板（grey standards）对图像进行归一化处理，以控制光照条件的影响。这使得借助各类消费级相机即可实现反射率（reflectance）与颜色的客观测量。此外，若已知相机的光谱灵敏度（spectral sensitivities），该软件还可将图像转换为对应多种动物视觉系统的视锥捕获值（cone-catch values），从而支持人类与非人类视觉系统的建模工作。该工具箱还提供图像分析工具，可提取亮度（明度）、颜色与图案信息。不仅如此，所有处理均基于32位浮点图像（32-bit floating point images）而非常用的8位图像（8-bit images），这提升了计算精度，降低了因舍入误差（rounding error）或像素饱和（saturation of pixels）导致的数据丢失风险，同时也便于对具有反光或荧光特性的物体进行测量。 3. 经该软件测试的所有相机，均在单幅图像内部以及不同曝光时长范围内表现出线性响应特性。视锥捕获映射函数（Cone-catch mapping functions）具备极高的鲁棒性，可将图像转换为多种动物视觉系统的对应表征，所得数据与基于光谱仪的测量结果高度吻合。 4. 本图像处理工具箱可作为开源ImageJ软件（ImageJ）的插件免费获取。我们相信，该工具将大幅提升数码相机在多个生物学领域的合理应用，尤其能助力致力于量化动植物视觉信号的研究人员开展相关工作。