Why can’t cameras and screens reproduce colors that are the same as real life? And why are they so different between devices?
In: Technology
Color is a very rich experience, which is the response to a mixture of many wavelengths of light at different intensities. Pixel screens are made up of red, green, and blue. These produce only a (relatively) few wavelengths of each color of light, designed to stimulate our eyes’ color receptors. So the screens don’t produce colors, they produce the illusion of colors.
So if aliens visit our planet, they will see our computer screens and won’t be able to see the color illusion at all, because their physiology will be different and their eyes’ will respond to differently to the specific color wavelengths used.
This illusion is delicate and small changes may be perceived as large differences. Tiny variations between screens can be easily detected by the human eye, because it’s an expert color processor and pixel displays are “cheating” by making the illusion of color.
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