

Sunglasses That Could Correct Color Blindness - pif
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/scientist-accidentally-developed-sunglasses-that-could-correct-color-blindness-180954456/

======
blake8086
I have these, they work for me. They make a really big difference in
distinguishing things like red/green traffic lights, or vegetation on top of
red brick. They also just make all of nature look a lot nicer.

If you have any questions about them, I would be glad to answer.

~~~
devindotcom
What sort of color blindness do you have? And is what you see qualitatively
different, like is there a new 'feel' to the color being made apparent? Or is
it more like the tiny differences you were always aware of are more intense?

Glad they work for you, by the way. Tough problem to solve.

~~~
blake8086
I have red-green deficiency, so red and green both seem like they have a lot
of white in them (I found out). For instance, green traffic lights actually
look white-green to me without the glasses, and same for red. The sunglasses
make them look like a pure, brilliant green or red with no white added.

I would describe it as a pretty big difference, it's not tiny, it's really
obvious, and whenever I forget my sunglasses or can't wear them for whatever
reason, the outdoors look really muted.

They won't work if you have complete color blindness, because there's no red-
green distinguishing information to work off of.

~~~
devindotcom
Right, gotcha. Excellent, I may have to keep these in mind for a few friends.

Do they have to be modified or customized in any way for you depending on
sensitivity or whatnot? I suppose I could look it up but your situation may
have differed.

~~~
blake8086
I don't think there are any options, I just got "large" "black" sunglasses in
one of the few frames they offer.

------
IanCal
This is really interesting, but the articles description makes no sense to me:

> EnChroma’s technology works by placing a band of absorption on glasses that
> captures light, pushing the cones away from each other and reestablishing
> the normal distribution of photons on them.

The glasses are _not_ pushing the cones on your retina apart (if they are
you're probably wearing them a bit close), so what are they doing?

~~~
notacoward
Typical science/tech Babel effect. Try EnChroma's own explanation.

[http://enchroma.com/technology/how-it-
works/](http://enchroma.com/technology/how-it-works/)

It seems like a pretty straightforward band-pass filter in the visible
frequency range. I don't know enough about eye physiology or chemistry to say
whether that would really have the effect they claim, but it sounds like
plenty of people have already tried them and found them useful somehow.

~~~
darkmighty
Actually that description is sound conceptually: the cones' spectral
absorption peaks are shifted apart with a stopband filter.

------
GordonS
I have red-green colour blindness, and I tried prototype contact lenses that
claimed to do this about 15 years ago.

Did they work? I don't know! Everything certainly looked different and a lot
more vivid.

I guess I would have had to use them for a long time and 'retrain my brain'
before I got any benefit.

They were quite expensive, and I just didn't like it - I might have been
seeing as a normally sighted person, but I just didn't know what the colours
were that I was looking at, so I decided not to use them.

------
pluma
As someone with a green deficiency, I'm not impressed. These glasses may
distort the natural colour spectrum enough to be useful as an assistive
technology when dealing with bad accessibility, but I wouldn't buy them unless
colour distinction was essential to my work.

Implants or gene therapy would be interesting. Assistive technology, not so
much.

~~~
gibsonje
Since you called out green deficiency specifically I think you're one of the
few people I've seen actually define their specific colorblindness, instead of
just saying "red/green colorblind". I have the same, green deficiency
(deuteranopia) and I've read others with it who have tried this had little to
no benefit. It's good to see it confirmed again. It's tempting to buy but I
would be severely disappointed I think based off everything I've read.

~~~
pluma
I just think calling everything "color blindness" isn't particularly helpful
in discussions about color vision. In everyday conversations I just say I have
a "red/green weakness", which is what most people know it as in my language
(German). However the term carries a few unfortunate implications (namely,
that it's just about distinguishing red and green in general, which couldn't
be further from the truth).

If you're in the same boat as me, having to explain yourself whenever you tell
people what it means to be "color blind", I've found this article helpful:
[http://critiquewall.com/2007/12/10/blindness](http://critiquewall.com/2007/12/10/blindness)
(the images are nearly indistinguishable for me, except for a few variations
in intensity and subtle changes in hue).

------
Mizza
I've used these and think they're awesome. Even as a non-color blind person,
they make colors a lot more vibrant.

I also got to see my colorblind friend witness his first rainbow, which was an
incredibly cool moment. We had to stop the car and pull over just to look at
it.. great technology.

------
reitanqild
I'd love something like this. After I realised others saw more colours than me
I've been thinking a few times what the world really looks like.

------
wodenokoto
This was up on reddit a week or two ago. They thought it was pretty "meh"

~~~
jeremysmyth
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7721720](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7721720)
\- they've been here too. A few times, with not much interest.

