How are colourblind people able to recognize the colours when they put on the special glasses, they have never seen those colours, right?
In: Biology
**Background**
To humans, all colors are merely a combination of red (R), green (G) and blue (B). We have cells in our eyes (called cones) that compare intensities of RGB. Why RGB? The colors R,G, and B are spaced distinctly far apart on the color spectrum. And the more distinct and farther apart the cones are on the color spectrum, the wider range of colors we can see, and the more precisely we can tell them apart.
**Explanation**
These glasses only work for a **specific kind of colorblindness** where the green cones mutate to become more sensitive to the neighborhood of red, orange and yellow light and less sensitive to green. So now when red light comes in, the brain still gets an signal from the green cone, which is wrong. Also, when green light comes in, the green cones, which the brain usually expects to turn on, don’t. This overlap of sensitivity between mutated green cones and red makes it hard to tell colors between red and green apart.
These glasses help by blocking wavelengths of light between red and green, thus exaggerating the difference such that the mutated green cones can function a bit more like normal green cones. With this comparison ability somewhat restored, the “color-blind” can better discriminate in that otherwise problematic area of red through green.
Latest Answers