What’s the mechanism behind translating a wave frequency to a color for a human?
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Your color sensing cells in your eyes come in 3 types. Each is sensitive over a range of wavelengths to different degrees, peaking in sensitivity at a certain wavelength and falling off to the sides.
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So any specific wavelength of light ends up activating one or multiple color cells in a region to different degrees that our brain merges together and interprets as a single color. It doesn’t react to a single photon either, rather a number of photons which may even be different wavelengths over a short period of time.
Which is also why we can see non spectrum colors like magenta. The color is a result of the specific combination of activation of different color cells so receiving red and blue wavelengths in the same area reads as magenta. Similarly receiving multiple colors of the actual spectrum that are nearby can mix to a color that duplicates the response to a single wavelength. A violet and cyan can mix to blue.
Receiving an even range mixes to white when interpreted.
As another note that peaking and overlap of color cells is why we have trouble telling certain wavelengths of light apart. Or to rephrase why the light spectrum from a prism seems to separate in distinct color bands.
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