# Color Blindness Simulator



## Sheilawisz (Dec 31, 2012)

I have been reading about how color vision actually works, and tonight I have discovered a site about Color Blindness that features a simulation software to give you an idea of what it feels like to be color blind:

Color Simulator.

You can play with it by uploading any picture that you have in your computer, and then it can alter the colors for you to see how the images change when you select different types of color vision deficiencies. I am not sure how accurate it really is, but it's very interesting anyway...

I have a particular interest in this because I have a character who was born with no color vision at all, and then she suddenly gained it when she was seven years old =)

After taking many tests I have concluded that I have normal color vision, what about you??


----------



## Caged Maiden (Dec 31, 2012)

I have very discerning color vision, and it's weird, that in auto-body school, my teacher said the painters dreaded when the wife would show to pick up the car, because women see more shades of color than men and are more discerning about color differences.  Hence, when they'd see the paint job, they were less pleased by the unavoidable imperfect match of the repaint.  Not to say that every woman will be more discerning than every man, but it's a general thing. 

Supposedly, that MAY relate to the fact that women, who handle most of the domestic tasks, are responsible for selecting fresh food for their family, and subtle color differences might represent the difference between food that is safe and food that has gone off, but I find that hard to believe, unless you use that in the context of our earliest human ancestors, because in the last several thousand years, people have habitually eaten food of questionable safety, covering the taste with spices and salt.  But there you go, one possibility.  Thanks for posting this, it was really interesting.  I often wondered what color-blind people really see.


----------



## Sheilawisz (Dec 31, 2012)

I have read that some few individuals (and particularly, women) are actually tetrachromatic, capable of seeing more shades and even colors that the normal trichromatic people cannot see... you can read about that here:

Tetrachromacy.

However, that has not been demonstrated to be real, not in the Homo Sapiens species anyway...

My character belongs to a different species: She has normal eyes for her species, but her body was lacking a special liquid that their eyes need to activate the color vision system.

That's why she was born without the ability to see colors, but when her mother finally bought a bottle of that liquid (a birthday present!) the little girl was suddenly overwhelmed by a world full of colors and she was nearly going crazy =)

Do you like the concept of a character like that??


----------



## Legendary Sidekick (Jan 1, 2013)

Caged Maiden said:


> women see more shades of color than men and are more discerning about color differences.


I have the visual aid:


----------



## Sheilawisz (Jan 1, 2013)

I have been learning a lot thanks to that site, it's kind of fascinating...

Even though the Red or Green color blindness is frequent in men, most of those affected men are not really color blind to either red or green: They are just _weak_ to catch those colors, but their color vision spectrum is not too different to the spectrum seen by normal Trichromatic people.

It's only when they are totally blind to either Red or Green that their color spectrum is really messed up, but even then, I think that the way that they see the world (according to the simulations, at least!) is rather intriguing, like something that I would accept to experience for a day or two...

However, the Blue Blindness seems disturbing and even scary to me!!

I would prefer to live with monochromatic colorless vision instead of being Blue Blind, it makes everything look so awful =(


----------



## Legendary Sidekick (Jan 2, 2013)

Funny thing about color blindness. My brother is an extremely talented artist, but he couldn't distinguish the red and green turtles in the original Super Mario Brothers, nor could he notice the change from Super Luigi (dark green shirt, white overalls) to Fiery Luigi (reddish shirt, off-white overalls). He was never tested, and aside from some odd flesh tones he used in his art school days, you'd never know of his slight color blindness.

Of course, his comic is in black and white and, on the cover art, characters have pale-bluish/greenish/devil-red skin... so maybe he found a great way to hide his color blindness!


----------



## SeverinR (Jan 2, 2013)

Color blindness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I liked the examples on the side.
I did have a color blind thief in one story, the uniform color for the trainee was different then the Dragon rider, but to the color blind person they were the same. So she was trying to rob a trainee that had very little with a young dragon in her room, needless to say she didn't get to far. (Most dragon riders can't keep their dragon in the hotel room with them.)

Trainee color was purple, Rider colors-blue, protanopia see both as blue.


----------



## Sheilawisz (Jan 2, 2013)

@Legendary: That sounds great about your brother!! There are studies that suggest that color blind people (even complete dichromats) can have an advantage over trichromats in certain situations, and having a unique perception of the world could help to develop artistic talents like your brother did, I imagine =)

There was a painter who was totally monochromat, and it's said that dichromats can penetrate camouflage that is designed for trichromats and even have a better vision in certain conditions of light...

I love Super Mario, by the way- I play Super Mario 64 over and over again, and particularly, I have fallen in love with the vibrant, fascinating and powerful colors of that game =)

@Severin: That must have been very funny to write, a color blind female character trying to steal from a Dragon Rider that was in reality a Trainee...

Even though the Red and Green color blindness are linked to chromosomes and affect more men than women, the Blue Blindness affects both equally and can even be acquired through an accident or damage to the eyes.

I find that very scary, because they end up seeing the world in shades of red, pink, white and that thing called turquoise, it looks so bad in the simulations... It gives me the impression that they live in a candy world, and for me it would be terrifying to experience that world myself.

What do you think of a character born without color vision that suddenly discovers trichromatic powers??


----------



## Reaver (Jan 2, 2013)

Caged Maiden said:


> I have very discerning color vision, and it's weird, that in auto-body school, my teacher said the painters dreaded when the wife would show to pick up the car, because women see more shades of color than men and are more discerning about color differences.  Hence, when they'd see the paint job, they were less pleased by the unavoidable imperfect match of the repaint.  Not to say that every woman will be more discerning than every man, but it's a general thing.



At last! The great mystery of why most women buy a car simply because _"it's pretty"_ has finally been revealed!


----------



## danr62 (Jan 2, 2013)

I'm one of those people with weak color vision.

I could never figure out which colors I'm weak in, though.


----------



## JCFarnham (Jan 2, 2013)

Here's something interesting. You know the Ishihara Colour Test plate (the one with the red 74 on a green background)? I see it alternately as 21, 74, or a mixture between (something close to a rather rounded 71, whereas my partner can exclusively see the true 74. 

I'm not properly color blind clearly ("as far as I know" I distinguish all colours in a logical way, meaning I see a normal range whether or not they are different shades to other people), but I could certainly be something else (anomalous trichromacy?) ... How odd! 

Something else I find incredibly intriguing is that, although us humans are trichromats, the mantis shrimp is instead something like a dodecachromat. The mind boggles at the shades possible.


----------



## Sheilawisz (Jan 2, 2013)

@Dan: The Coblis Simulator can simulate not only Red, Green and Blue blindness, but the weaker forms of all three as well. Maybe if you try uploading many different pictures you could figure out which color is your weakness by comparing the original picture, but it's tricky because Red and Green deficiencies look quite similar to each other.

@JC: That sounds like you really have a color deficiency (_anomalous trichromat_ sounds weird, indeed!) but you would not be a real dichromat, as far as I can tell judging from what you describe.

The Ishihara color tests are designed for discovering Red and Green problems only, so you must have one of those and not the rarer Blue thing.

Yeah, I am wondering what colors exist out there that escape our limited Trichromatic vision... anyway, after learning all of this I am really happy to be a Trichromat creature =)


----------



## Chime85 (Jan 3, 2013)

Interesting test. However, should I be alarmed that I see no difference between the Protanopia colour scheme and the Deuteranopia field?

After taking a peek at your test, Sheila, I went a little further afield and found this. Ishihara Test for Color Blindness. It's the usual coloured dots in a circle with a number in each of them. Most of them I detected with ease, but I found it hard to determine the bottom left one. I managed to do it after squinting my eyes, but it wasn't easy. 

I can't help but think, eek!


----------



## JCFarnham (Jan 3, 2013)

@chime: to a smaller degree I had the same problem. 

I assume that since someone without any problems could rattle the numbers off with out any problem, all the test plates should be equally clear. Since bottom left is the least clear (though I got the number with little problem) that says something...

I prefer the warm glow artificial light gives areas, along with muted colours. How much of that is me, how much is up bringing, and how much of that is this possible slight colour deficiency?

Fascinating stuff! I suppose I should consider myself lucky its not worse in me. I can imagine the problems traffic lights must give some people.


----------



## Sheilawisz (Jan 3, 2013)

Chime, the difference between the Red blindness simulation and the Green one can be almost nothing, depending on the picture that you are uploading... With some pictures I can tell almost no difference, but with others (and especially, with a picture of my brilliantly red plushie) it turns out to be quite clear.

Thanks for that Ishihara link!! I could easily tell which number was inside every of those six circles, so my Red and Green vision is alright, I think. There are other Ishihara-like color tests out there, I'll try to find another link.

I have found another interesting color test online, which determines how well you can tell a variety of color hues: Color Challenge.

My score after trying it right now was 4, which is great news for me =)


----------



## Chime85 (Jan 3, 2013)

Thanks for the other test, Sheila. I have completed that one and found the results as follow:

Your score: 69
Gender: Female
Age range: 20-29
Best score for your gender and age range: 0

 This is certainly a form of self discovery! Still, very interesting stuff


----------



## danr62 (Jan 3, 2013)

Sheilawisz said:


> Chime, the difference between the Red blindness simulation and the Green one can be almost nothing, depending on the picture that you are uploading... With some pictures I can tell almost no difference, but with others (and especially, with a picture of my brilliantly red plushie) it turns out to be quite clear.
> 
> Thanks for that Ishihara link!! I could easily tell which number was inside every of those six circles, so my Red and Green vision is alright, I think. There are other Ishihara-like color tests out there, I'll try to find another link.
> 
> ...



Well, according to this I have a hard time distinguishing hues of blue. Huge spike there.


----------



## SeverinR (Jan 3, 2013)

Your score: 90 
Gender: Male 
Age range: 40-49 
Best score for your gender and age range: 0 
Highest score for your gender and age range: 1520 

Wow, alot worse then I thought.


----------



## Sheilawisz (Jan 3, 2013)

I would suggest that you take a longer time with that test, so you can get better results.

Thinking about this has given me an idea for a Fantasy story, about two rival cities of Mages: They would belong to a monochromatic species, but they manage to become dichromatic thanks to a Magic spell... However, the spell worked causing two different results and one city has Green blind Mages while the others are Blue blind.

They would start a war to decide who sees the "real" colors, but in the end, they become Trichromats!!

That sounds a lot like my first Fantasy novel though, except with colors instead of magical candles =)


----------



## Epaminondas (Jan 3, 2013)

@Chime85
That's the test I remember taking when I was a kid, when the doctor told me I was colorblind.
I can see the top left one perfectly clear. The top & bottom right... I can tell there's something there but not what it is.


----------



## Sheilawisz (Jan 4, 2013)

Epaminondas, how accurate is the Coblis simulator in your personal experience??

I am really intrigued by the simulations, because before this I really had no idea what full colorblind people would see the world like... the simulations have allowed me to imagine those different ways to see the world, but still I don't know whether that system is really accurate or not.

Many colorblind people say that it's very difficult and frustrating to try to explain to others how they see everything, but the simulations like Coblis may be helpful for that as well...


----------



## SeverinR (Jan 4, 2013)

Sheilawisz said:


> Epaminondas, how accurate is the Coblis simulator in your personal experience??
> 
> I am really intrigued by the simulations, because before this I really had no idea what full colorblind people would see the world like... the simulations have allowed me to imagine those different ways to see the world, but still I don't know whether that system is really accurate or not.
> 
> Many colorblind people say that it's very difficult and frustrating to try to explain to others how they see everything, but the simulations like Coblis may be helpful for that as well...


We describe what we know, They see colors, but you can't use words for colors you don't see a difference too.  You might be able to describe the color of an object by the hundreds of shades in a crayon box, but the color blind person doesn't see colors like normal people, so they can't use those as defining.
When a woman tells me, its _______(obscure color name), I tell them, my crayon box only had 8, which color is closest to those?


----------



## Sheilawisz (Jan 4, 2013)

That's true, but I think that a Green blind person would see no difference between the original uploaded picture and the Coblis simulation for Green blindness...

Who knows, maybe the simulations are not really accurate because we all see color in different ways. At least it gives me an idea of what the color blind world looks like, and it could help color blind people to explain to others what their vision is like as well.

I still have the impression that the Red/Green simulations are intriguing, and the Blue are terrifying!!


----------



## Epaminondas (Jan 4, 2013)

Sheilawisz said:


> Epaminondas, how accurate is the Coblis simulator in your personal experience??
> 
> I am really intrigued by the simulations, because before this I really had no idea what full colorblind people would see the world like... the simulations have allowed me to imagine those different ways to see the world, but still I don't know whether that system is really accurate or not.
> 
> Many colorblind people say that it's very difficult and frustrating to try to explain to others how they see everything, but the simulations like Coblis may be helpful for that as well...



It's tough to say. They told me I was "red/green" color blind but I can see a little bit of both. I think the simulator would be pretty close if you were totally unable to see those colors but I, and probably most people, are really more " green weak/ red weak. As opposed to a total inability to see those colors.


----------



## Sheilawisz (Jan 6, 2013)

Thank you, so we can say that the Coblis simulations are simply an approximate...

Some people believe that we all see colors in our own personal way, and since there is no way to know for certain how every person experiences color vision who knows, that may be true after all.

The simulations can help anyway to dispel the myths that many people believe about color blindness, like thinking that a color blind person sees everything in shades of white, gray and black. That happens sometimes but it has another name and it's very rare, causing other vision problems beside total loss of color vision.

I am trying to post other Ishihara-like color tests, when I can change the format of the pictures =)


----------



## Sheilawisz (Jan 6, 2013)

Well, after learning how to change picture file Formats in Mac (everything is so different to Windows!!) finally I have three Color Vision tests ready to be posted in this thread.

I found them at Wikipedia, and the Licensing says that I am free to copy, distribute or modify the files so here they are:

Protan Color Vision Test, for Red weakness/blindness:








Following, we have a Deutan Color Vision Test for Green troubles:







Finally, the Tritan test that is designed for the crazy cotton-candy world Blue troubles:







It's about reading what is hidden in every picture =)


----------

