My Android phone has a program that allows me to point the camera at a fabric or wall, or anything that is a solid color and it will analyze the color, give it a name and spit out the RGB values of the color. I have enjoyed the novelty of it but it is not very accurate. However, it is quite interesting to see the percentages of the primaries that make up the colors.
I recently wrote a blog about an iPhone app that trains you to duplicate a certain color by mixing primaries. All of these separate technologies are getting us ready to mix our own color for lighting with LED fixtures. Lighting designers will have to develop the same skills that great scenic painters have developed over the years in mixing their paints to recreate the scenic artists specified colors. Of course, mixing light and mixing pigments are two completely different mediums but they will eventually interact with one another to enhance or subdue a scene onstage. You can use technology to help you arrive at a color but in the end, it will be your eyes and your brain’s ability to react to what you are seeing and what you want to do with the lighting colors.