Special filters in glasses can help the color blind see colors better

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-special-filters-glasses.html

by pseudolus • 6 years ago

42 42 6 years ago

kps3• 6 years ago

The actual paper is available [pdf]: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.054

[Edit] Notes:

• People tested have all 3 cones but reduced function of one type (‘anomolous trichromats’) — either green (‘deuteranomoly’) or red (‘protoanomoly’). These are the most common forms of colour blindness.

• “All tests were performed without the glasses.” Hypothesis that the brain is being trained to compensate for the weak cones, like an audio equalizer [my analogy].

• They were testing a (patented) commercial product, in which one of the authors is invested. There may be specifics of the notch filters in the patent that were not in the paper. (I'm at work and not allowed to read active patents.)

dhekir• 6 years ago

I'm at work and not allowed to read active patents.

Is that related to legal issues (as in, if you don't read patents, there's less chance that you'll end up being prosecuted if you accidentally implement something similar)?

kps3• 6 years ago

I believe damages can be higher if you _knowingly_ infringe on a patent vs _unknowingly_ infringe on a patent, but I don't even play a lawyer on TV.

mycall• 6 years ago

This is what "clean room" duplication efforts try to bypass.

GordonS• 6 years ago

Glasses to correct/improve colour vision have existed for decades, though I don't know how these differ.

As a kid, my parents took me to try out a pair (maybe 25 years back)... but I just didn't like it. Everything seemed so much more colourful, and bright. It was almost like sensory overload.

Everything was also more confusing; I didn't actually feel like I could differentiate colours any better - colours were different, sure, but I still didn't know what they were.

genericlogic• 6 years ago

I experienced something very similar when presented with glasses to slightly correct my vision as a child. I found the world too sharp and distinct. When I looked at a tree each leaf stood out, while my experience had been that there should be no individual leaf, it should be blended.

I decided not to use the glasses and since my vision wasn't that bad I stumbled through. I realize as an adult now if I had just waited I likely would have acclimated to the situation.

fiblye• 6 years ago

I never saw leaves on trees either until I finally got glasses at 18. I was told constantly as a kid that I needed glasses, but I just brushed it aside because I couldn't imagine things being better. If only a doctor would've told me to put on a pair and walk around before refusing, I think my life would've been quite different.

Then again, when I finally did get glasses, I refused to wear them more than a few minutes a day for my first month. They just made me uncomfortable, visually and mentally. It seems like people are always most comfortable with what they know, even if it's objectively worse.

istjohn• 6 years ago

I remember when I first got glasses as a kid. I was thrilled with how crisply I could see all the little branches in the trees when I looked up. It was a total blessing for me, but I can see how it could feel overwhelming for someone, too.

Vrondi3• 6 years ago

When I got my first pair at age 9, I froze to a complete stop on the sidewalk outside the optometrist's office, exclaiming to my mother about how I could read signs all the way at the other end of the street! I rode home with my face pressed to the car window, exclaiming and marveling about how I could see individual leaves on trees, and interrogating my mother about whether she had always been able to see the individual leaves from far away. It was mind-blowingly magical, like having a movie camera zoom lens suddenly, instead of being limited to close-ups only. Or like finally being given some bionic super power that I never knew everyone else had.

joncrane• 6 years ago

I just saw a post on reddit where at a wedding, the wife gave her husband some similar glasses. Lots of crying. Many of the comments were similar to here where colorblind people said they don't help.

This makes me wonder if some new colorblindness glasses manufacturer is planting "viral" content.

krisgee• 6 years ago

This makes me wonder if some new colorblindness glasses manufacturer is planting "viral" content.

This is it. Last couple of rounds of these "magic glasses" have also followed the same pattern, trying to prey on colourblind people's loved ones to buy them these expensive glasses. Everything I've read from people who've actually tried this says they're underwhelming, they work by blocking some of the spectrum around where you have issues (for instance I'm Red/Green so I have issues around those colours but especially browns and purple) so you can distinguish differences more clearly.

They do NOT let you see more colours magically, just distiguish the now reduced colour set better.

I'd love nothing more than some magical solution to cure my colourblindness, when I was a kid up till I was 15 (I got diagnosed really late) my top three careers were Astronaut, Military Pilot and Commerical pilot, if anyone remembers that one scene in Little Miss Sunshine that was very close to my reality. Unforutnatly until we start replacing eyeballs somehow it just doesn't exist.

tl;dr don't buy these, they're trying to use your impulse to do something nice for someone against you.

samdb• 6 years ago

I had only heard of Enchroma but then stumbled across and bought some Pilestone glasses last month. I think they cost me around £120 here in the UK.

At first I put them on and they just made everything look tinged with pink so removed them after a minute or two. Then I noticed the instructions. I had assumed glasses didn't need instructions but all it said was to leave them on for at least 15 minutes for your eyes to adjust.

My eyes did 'adjust' after a few minutes more and while it wasn't something that would make me cry like the viral videos, there was definitely an emotional reaction. I wore them on a walk through the countryside and the vivid colours of certain flowers did make me stop and I found I couldn't stop grinning.

I did find that reds look a bit orange - things like the Royal Mail van which is certainly red appeared quite bright and what I would previously have called orange. Who knows if that's wrong or right though? It's hard to know how everyone else sees things.

I don't wear the glasses day-to-day but I do take them with me if we are going somewhere picturesque.

wtdo• 6 years ago

I'll second your recommendation to not buy these glasses. However, you don't need a miracle or replacement eyeballs. Gene therapy has already been shown to work to cure color blindness. Dr. William Hauswirth at the University of Washington did that in monkeys back in 2009, and currently has a grant to trial a gene therapy to cure achromatopsia in humans, though I have no idea how that is going. I'd guess color blindness will be curable in my lifetime.

kps3• 6 years ago

Not sure why you're downvoted. The referenced paper discloses (p6) “KK holds shares in EnChroma®”.

peterwoerner• 6 years ago

My wife got me these as a wedding gift present. Didn't make a difference for me--maybe a little more contrast in the different "greens". The next morning my cousin and brother (also both colorblind) tried them on and thought they were amazing. My cousin had the viral marketing reaction.

slfnflctd2• 6 years ago

After seeing one of the earlier viral videos and a blog-article or two, my S.O. and I scraped together enough money to buy a pair of the Enchroma glasses for an older relative a couple years ago (it was somewhere close to $800 if I recall right, I got another relative to chip in but it was still tough for us to afford)-- the reaction was underwhelming to say the least. We've never spoken of it since.

I would caution people not to expect anything. Unless the high price of these things is pocket change for you, don't do it. Maybe find a way to demo them, or assume up front that you may end up needing to ask for a refund.

geuis• 6 years ago

This is a video one of my friends recorded a few years ago of our friend Tim, who is color blind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndT0wnAb8bU

While I get that a lot of these videos seem like viral marketing, I know from personal experience in this case that it wasn’t. They really do work for some people, and it’s an amazing experience for them.

glaberficken4• 6 years ago

I cannot read anything on this shirt Can you?

https://youtu.be/ndT0wnAb8bU?t=160

tokai• 6 years ago

I don't think the manufacturers need to plant anything. Creators are so hungry for easy content.

PJDK• 6 years ago

Seems from this thread that they don't seem to work for everyone. But a friend of mine is Red/Green colour blind and recently got a pair.

We went for a walk in the countryside and he was still (a couple of weeks later) excitedly pointing out how many different colours were in the field.

It wasn't quite the viral marketting thing, but I was surprised and impressed by how much difference they seemed to make to him. I guess it's quite person specific though.

space_ghost• 6 years ago

My former employer was the optical lab that actually manufactured the EnChroma lenses for a few years. My best friend also works there, is red-green colorblind and found that the EnChroma lenses didn't help him at all.

altitudinous2• 6 years ago

I'm colorblind, imagine you've seen colors a certain way your whole life - decades - and then someone gives you glasses to see colors "correctly". The colors just look wrong, not "correct". Why would I wear them? I know the color of everything already. Its also discriminatory, who says that the correct way to see colors is your way? Also, my whole life I've been discriminated against in jobs because of some broad definition of color blindness, at least some folk have made some steps to be able to categorize levels and types of color blindness now. Many jobs that weren't open to me when I was younger are now open to me, but I'm too old now. It isn't a "disability" requiring fixing.

altitudinous2• 6 years ago

Downvoted even though I am colorblind and actually know what I'm talking about!

loa_in_• 6 years ago

You provide nothing constructive or objective with your comment. Also your comment goes against truth, as we know the full range of visible light spectrum by measuring it.

glaberficken4• 6 years ago

I get where you are coming from. I also have some sort of colorblindness apparently (just found out!). I agree with you that there is no single correct way to "see" colors, and as such that does not require fixing. i.e. If the glasses are only going to change color A to be more or less vivid then what really is the "philosophical" value?

However, if the glasses allow you to start differentiating colors that you previously perceived as a single uniform color, then I think there is a much stronger reason to wear them.

mkl• 6 years ago

It's not about seeing "correctly". No human can see colour perfectly. It's about making it easier to distinguish colours that most people can easily distinguish. If someone came up with a way for me to distinguish more colours, e.g. like a tetrachromat can [1], I'd be keen to try it.

My father is red-green colourblind, so I've seen some consequences of it. I consider it a disability (there are ordinary things my dad just can't do), but it doesn't require fixing.

To most people red and green are as different as black and white; imagine having trouble distinguishing black and white, and you'll have an idea why some people think you might want these glasses. (Yes, I'm making assumptions about your vision here that might not be correct.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy#Humans

Vrondi3• 6 years ago

By that logic, if someone is born without a leg, and technology allows us to give them a functional prosthetic, we shouldn't bother, because that would be "discriminating", not giving them back equal functionality to the majority of the human race. It's just amazing that anyone could equate restoring measurable physical deficits in functionality to discrimination.

Very sad psychological defensiveness for your in-born lesser function. "Naturally", my vision is poor enough that I would be completely unable to drive, watch TV, and barely able to read or use a computer without glasses, but if I were to call optometrists and my parents who wanted to give me the full function and opportunities that other humans have discriminatory and evil for giving me glasses, I would definitely be displaying some unjust ego defense.

When the world has been out of focus your entire life, and a pair of glasses suddenly makes it snap into sharp focus, it is nearly indescribably overwhelming. However, it absolutely means I can do jobs I would not be safe doing otherwise (operating machinery, driving, etc.). This type of discrimination is justified for the safety of others. If you have the right type of color blindness that glasses such as these could help, then you _can_ learn and adjust to more proper colors, if you are willing to do so, just as I could adjust to the way the world looked utterly suddenly changing. Just don't be so stodgy and defensive.

Jaruzel2• 6 years ago

Searching EnChroma Glasses (as referenced in the article), led me to this Colour Blindness Test:

https://enchroma.com/pages/color-blindness-test

As expected, I am not colour blind, but if you are not sure, give it a go!

rapnie• 6 years ago

I had never heard of EnChroma until I bumped into YouTube videos recording reactions of people seeing true color for the first time in their life. Quite an experience, I gather.

Here is one example (via invidio.us): https://invidio.us/watch?v=XSD7-TgUmUY

Edit: Just read in this thread that they may be viral marketing, and the glasses are not as special as they are expensive.

runjake• 6 years ago

I'm colorblind and have never tried the glasses, but:

As many of you know, the western US has been experiencing significant wildfires in recent years.

When the smoke gets particularly bad in the valley I live in, the one upside is that colors -- particularly red become much more vibrant -- I marvel at stop signs, stop lights and naturally-occurring purples, in particular.

It makes it seem as though not only can I distinguish, but my perceived color spectrum widens. I swear I can see the colors clearly as they should be, even though I lack whatever cones or rods required. While I don't react to it with crying in the videos, it's certainly stunning and emotional.

I've been working on software over the years to try and duplicate the effect using a phone camera. It doesn't seem to be a simple brown filter.

Special filters in glasses can help the color blind see colors better

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