I'm not sure I could restate this without it sounding like EvilHomer posted it.

http://enchroma.com/technology/?ModPagespeed=noscript

It sounds like the parts of your eyes that absorb different parts of the color spectrum can have an anomaly that makes them interfere with each other, mis-processing the color. The glasses separate the spectrums more, like noise canceling.

Or do they really!? Science and philosophy both agree that *slaps self*

I'm not sure you could, either.

Anyways, yes, as Meme says, it's a question of separating the spectrum and allowing the wearer to differentiate between various wavelengths of light. How exactly they do it is a bit hazy (Meme's link is clearly intended to dazzle investors while minimizing any potentially trade-secret-leaking details) but I suspect that their lenses are just selectively filtering out certain wavelengths, in order to optimize each individual consumer's photo-receptive balance. i.e. if you see "too much" green, they'll filter out green light until you can see red again.


It's interesting to point out that even so-called "non-colorblind" people still miss out on a great deal of colors! Besides the obvious - that is, the colors of those wavelengths which lie outside of our visible light spectrum - there are also what is known as "imaginary colors", or colors which are mathematically capable of existing, yet impossible to see under normal conditions, usually because they consist of two complementary colors. There's a good (albeit Homeric) analysis of this phenomenon, written by a Princeton grad student over at the Physics Stack Exchange.

http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/48224/is-it-possibl e-that-there-is-a-color-our-human-eye-cant-see

Maybe it's not the best analogy but my TV at work is really old and has been demagnetized or something, so shows that we watch every night like Jeopardy are half blue and a part of it shows up as green. Or, Lois Griffin's shirt turns from brown to blue, things like that. At first I really noticed but after a while I just adjusted to recognize the colors on the screen as blue even if they weren't. I mean, not that I just watch TV all night at work or anything, but Jeopardy is not to be missed.

I worked with a guy with colorblindness and he had a sense of humor about it, so I'd make him red and green dot paintings with things like "ASSHOLE" in them. But more importantly, he still knew that the sky was blue and grass was green, even if it wasn't. So these glasses kind of seem like fixing that TV set back to all the right colors.

Whoops! I wrote most of this and walked away before EH's better description. Still think we're the same person? :D

:: we've almost got him believing us ::

They're clearly different people. Nobody has time to write that much.

Also, I bet this guy has philosophy of mind dorks breaking down his door to talk about the Mary's Room problem.

...qualia are still bullshit.

Thanks for the link, meme.

>> ...qualia are still bullshit.

Why? What is your take on the Mary's Room problem?

Also, why would philosophy of mind dorks be breaking down this guy's door? This guy was previously unable to see a certain color, that's true, but I hardly suppose that he had learned *everything there is to know* about the color purple prior to receiving these glasses, and is thus an imperfect Mary analogue.

Furthermore, why wouldn't the dorks just knock politely and wait to be invited in?

All people are colorblind.
Ever taken a color test? You might be surprised how many you miss.

I was diagnosed with synesthesia a long time ago, so I'm guessing my reality and perception of colors differs from a lot of peoples'.. I got 113 out of a possible 1520 on that dang test. :(

EH: fair point about the Mary's Room problem. He doesn't already know everything there is to know about the neurology of color perception. Though, a first hand account of "what it's like" to see a new color would be fascinating and relevant.

If you can provide a non-circular definition of qualia that doesn't assume what it's trying to prove, I'd be happy to debate the subject with you.

>>Furthermore, why wouldn't the dorks just knock politely and wait to be invited in?

Philosophy of mind dorks are jerks. They're always locking people in rooms and forcing them to translate Chinese from manuals or learn about neurology from black and white TV.

All I can think about is They Live. Put the glasses on! No! Punchpunchpunch

I wonder if there's a free demo thing available anywhere...seems like if the product works, it would sell itself to anyone that needs it.

This sounds less like filtering colors, but wavelength bands. Like some sunglasses have done this for years where they can filter out reflected wavelengths, like the light that doesn't penetrate water and bounces off, it isn't focusing on any color per-se. So the colors stay the same and the world doesn't exactly darken at all, it just splits the light in two so you don't see blinding glares. That doesn't meant this is similar to how these are made, I still am not sure how these glasses work though and its hard to find a detailed explanation, but the fact that this was stumbled upon while trying to make sunglasses lends to this. Like what if it is blocking half of the red wavelengths, and the opposite half of the green wavelengths so they would be picked up separate. My knowledge of the physics of light are limited, but what little I do know makes it seem not quite impossible.

Mister Yuck, I believe that is addressed on their page. They do say if you have 100% overlap between red and green then differential filters will not help you, but most cases of color blindness can be corrected or improved, they claim.

I have a friend with color blindness and I'm going to snag a pair for him. I will let you know if it helps.

Amazon reviews are mostly positive, gushing ones may be shills but the overall consensus seems to be that they work, to a degree, just don't expect miracles. There are only a couple of complaints to the Better Business Beauru (most of which are related to shipping), and there's a fairly recent article form The Atlantic, which goes on awhile but finally admits that they didn't work for the author at all.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/03/a-cure-f or-colorblindess/386450/

I'm guessing it's a notch filter between the two common red peaks and green peaks, which helps the most common form of colorblindness where someone's X chromosome encodes either two slightly different reds or two slightly different greens. It has no way of restoring full color vision but it'd at least do a LOT to help differentiate them.

What I've wondered ever since first seeing these is what it'd do to someone who is a tetrachromat (someone with two X chromosomes of which one has the colorblindness trait). It's likely that such people are actually very common (one would expect the incidence rate in XX/XXY folks to be about the same as the incidence rate of colorblindness in XY folks) but that they don't really know it beyond having a vague perception of colors not matching for them when they match for others.

I also wonder what the world looks like to someone with normal color vision through them. If it's just a notch filter then it probably wouldn't have much of an effect.

Baleen-if you end up doing that please post the results somewhere I could find them, I'd be very interested. If you can, take your friend to the hardware store and have him arrange a spectrum of paint chips with and without the glasses and see how he does. For extra credit, take a woman friend with you, as women generally have better color vision than even 'normal' men.

I'm apprenticing as an electrician and my colorblindness pretty much excludes me from any communication work because I can't terminate a Cat-5 without help. That's not the end of the world, but if I was more flexible I could maybe earn more money.

Know any paraplegic marathon runners?