1. A test bed for optimizing an image segregation, comprising: a memory storing an image file containing an image, a set of operations, a set of constraint software modules and a set of parameters relevant to the image, the set of operations, the set of constraint software modules and the set of parameters being arranged to be performed so as to segregate an image into a corresponding intrinsic image, the intrinsic image comprising a representation of one of material or illumination, expressed as a separate, multi-band representation for the one of material or illumination, independent of the other of the material or illumination, wherein each band corresponds to a segment of the electro-magnetic spectrum; a transform module for performing a preselected one of the set of operations, defined by a preselected one of the set of constraint software modules, on the image, as a function of preselected ones of the set of parameters, to provide the intrinsic image as an output intrinsic image; a test module utilizing the transform module output intrinsic image; an analysis module for analyzing test module performance; and a feedback loop for varying selected ones of the operations, constraint software modules and parameters, for input to the transform module, to provide a new output intrinsic image for input to the test module.