
Special filters in glasses can help the color blind see colors better - pseudolus
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-special-filters-glasses.html
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kps
The actual paper is available [pdf]:
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.054](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
> _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)?

~~~
kps
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.

~~~
Thorrez
Yes,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treble_damages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treble_damages)

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joncrane
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
>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
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.

~~~
floatingatoll
The reaction of ‘grinning’ you describe was the same for me when my sense of
smell was fixed surgically and began working properly some years ago.

------
runjake
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.

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GordonS
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
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
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.

~~~
glaberficken
I still vividly remember the day I walked out of the opticians at 9yo with my
first pair of corrective glasses (myopia). It really freaked me out because I
literally saw the sidewalk ride up the side of adjacent building walls as I
walked along the street. I wanted to immediately take them off. But after a
few hours that feeling just went away.

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

[https://enchroma.com/pages/color-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
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](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.

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space_ghost
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.

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altitudinous
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.

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

~~~
loa_in_
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.

~~~
watwut
Visible light spectrum as in wavelengths going from small to large do not have
all colors in it. For example, magenta is missing, because it is not
achievable with single wave.

Not sure what it has to do with anything.

~~~
Vrondi
...and if you are physically unable to see one of the colors in magenta, you
cannot see magenta. Not sure what that has to do with anything.

