What means zebra, or under/over exposure ?
It checks floor and ceiling limits relatively to a color space. If color space is:
- YCbCr (or YUV, likes), Y means luminance and floor/ceiling over CbCr is really interpretative;
- RGB, each tonal component represents additive color model's components. Each includes luminance and saturation of these components. Floor/Ceiling limits, apply to each or combine components are relevant to the luminance/saturation within this tonal component;
- HSL, Hue/Saturation/Lightness, it has the same complexity of interpretation as YCbCr where L is lightness and Hue/Saturation represent tonal and intensity of this tonal component.
- CieLab for LAB Cie color space where L means Lightness and a/b have similar interpretation as UV
- CieXYZ, ...
- ...
Well, the principal question is "What do you want to detect ?", "What do you want to check against what ?"
See, when I look at "Y" zebra on my display, it signals that the luminance is under/over predefined limits. When I set it to something else, I shall interpret zebra upon the selected color space component.
For example, supposed I developed CieLab zebras. "L" refers to lightness similarly to "Y", and a/b refer to signed color components (-127...+127) where I could put -100/+100 as counter-floor/ceiling. But I still have to interpret the meaning of these zebras.
For conclusion, RGB's R G B zebra, like CieLab's a/b, or YCbCr's Cb/Cr, or other color space's color components, are subject to "perceptual/personal" interpretation.
IMHO, the main purpose of zebra, and histogram too, is to display mathematical result from YCbCr viewport datas, refering to spectral information.