top | item 44304516

(no title)

glkindlmann | 8 months ago

afaik not based on standard RGB displays. All widespread technology for digital color reproduction is based on RGB primaries, i.e. a 3D space of color, or rather a 3D submanifold of spectra inside the effectively infinite-dimensional space of spectra. It is feasible to test for color deficient vision (deficiency or absence of one or more cones, reducing color perception to a 2D or 1D space) because it is easy to sample 3D RGB space and behaviorally detect if colors that are different in 3D are conflated because in some viewer they project to the same location in their 2D or 1D "color" sub-submanifold.

But we'd need a convenient way to sample a 4D space of colors (perhaps with 4 monochromatic sources?), and thereby generate different spectra that normal trichromats see as the same color (called "metamers"), but that tetrachromats could recognize as distinct. And, how the 4D space is sampled would have to be pretty carefully optimized to generate distinct spectra that have the same response with the M (medium or "green") and L (long or "red") cones (which are actually quite similar already!) while also generating different responses for the putative tetrachromat's additional code between M and L. And that isn't possible with any conventional display device.

discuss

order

carlosjobim|8 months ago

On the contrary, RGB displays should be excellent tools to determine if somebody has vision which differ from normal. Ask the person to adjust the color settings so that real world footage on the display looks like how they experience the real world. Then you will see if there's any divergence in color perception, since display images are direct light while real world vision is reflected light.

glkindlmann|8 months ago

Whether via direct or reflected light, spectra in trichromat's eyes are still projected down to a 3D space (the responses of the S, M, L cones). What you describe would still require a standardized and reliable way to probe an extra degree of freedom in spectra that conventional RGB displays can't access. The paper shared by varunneal explains it better than I can.

glkindlmann|8 months ago

(in the awesome paper shared by varunneal, the metamers are named "keef" and "litz")