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Science & Technology

Glasses provide cure for colour blindness

By T.K. Randall
February 9, 2013 · Comment icon 11 comments

Image Credit: CC 2.5 Wing-Chi Poon
Scientists have developed special spectacles that allow someone to see in the full spectrum of light.
The glasses are aimed at people who suffer from red-green colour blindness, a genetic abnormality that is thought to affect up to 10% of men and a small percentage of women. The spectacles were originally developed for the purpose of increasing the ability to see oxygenated blood in the skin but it was later found that they were also able to help people with colour-blindness see in the full range of colours.

"Most mammals - your dog, horse, bunny - have two dimensions of colour," said evolutionary neurobiologist Mark Changizi. "A yellow-blue dimension, and a grayscale (or brightness) dimension. Some of us primates, however, have an extra dimension of colour vision: The red-green dimension."
The high tech glasses help those with "red-green deficiency", an inability to see some red and green colours. The genetic abnormality is estimated to affect about 10 per cent of all adult men and a small number of women.


Source: Telegraph | Comments (11)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #2 Posted by and then 11 years ago
Now if they'd just devise a cure for "beer goggles"
Comment icon #3 Posted by rashore 11 years ago
Heh, the cure for beer goggles is not to put them on in the first place I think this is pretty neat, though I don't know how I would feel about an improvement of red/green at the cost of losing some blue/yellow.
Comment icon #4 Posted by pallidin 11 years ago
My brother has "color blindness" I do not. I guess I can't imagine what he's missing, in the sense that I can't really show him.
Comment icon #5 Posted by Chrlzs 11 years ago
Fascinating! I want to try these - at that price they are worth investigating. I have mild red-green color blindness (deuteranopia) and yes, it's hard to describe to someone without it, just as those with 'full' color vision couldn't describe how much better or different their worldview is. But I'll try.. First up all bright blues, oranges and yellows are just as beautiful, colourful, dazzling and easily recognisable to me as they are to you non-CBers. Interestingly, so are vivid greens and reds, especially when they are well lit or are themselves light sources. That's why I, and the vast majo... [More]
Comment icon #6 Posted by highdesert50 11 years ago
I am always amazed at the serendipitous results of experiments intended for one purpose that have sometimes better results when applied to different purposes ... Penicillin, for example.
Comment icon #7 Posted by Zero Fox FK 11 years ago
Would be interesting if they started seeing things we couldn't, like ghosts or something. I really want ghost glasses...
Comment icon #8 Posted by sarah_444 11 years ago
Would be interesting if they started seeing things we couldn't, like ghosts or something. I really want ghost glasses... Have you seen "Thirteen Ghosts"? lol
Comment icon #9 Posted by Archimedes 11 years ago
Interesting, red-green color blindness runs in my family. Me and my 2 brothers are red-green color blind. But I can't really see the appeal of these glasses. In my case, it's not like I'm going to get run over crossing the road because I can't tell the green man from the red man at the crosswalk. It's quite subtle. Can't do them damn color blindness test for hell though. There's a number somewhere in that blob of coloured circles? Yeah, whatever! I have a brother however who has it worse. He's an arty type and I remember as a kid him drawing pictures with light green instead of pink pigs, a Ch... [More]
Comment icon #10 Posted by Chrlzs 11 years ago
Interesting, red-green color blindness runs in my family. Me and my 2 brothers are red-green color blind. ...Never had that issue but my other brother as a kid used to always hand me blue and purple markers when he was drawing and get me to tell him which was which. That's fascinating - it sounds as though like me, you would also be classed as a deuteranope, but the effects are significantly different - there is obviously a wide range of differing sensitivities in differing color bands.. Like you, I don't encounter many problems with it either.. but I read some comments from CB people who had ... [More]
Comment icon #11 Posted by Der 11 years ago
Interesting, red-green color blindness runs in my family. Me and my 2 brothers are red-green color blind. But I can't really see the appeal of these glasses. Probably because you don't realize what you're missing.


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