This Blog started out as a record of my project to build (and make things with) a Mendel Prusa 3D Printer (RepRap), but I have found that I keep getting sidelined into a lot of other interesting projects (Astronomy, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc), so I have widened its scope to cover anything and everything that I find interesting!
So the Paris Climate Conference went well, and we have apparently solved the problem of global warming - what's the next major problem humanity should tackle?
Well, it's obvious really:
You're binge-watching your favourite TV series on Netflix, you fall asleep, and you wake up two hours later having missed a couple of key episodes.
The good people at Netflix have a simple solution that you can make for yourself:
These amazing socks detect when you have dozed off, and send a pause signal to your TV / set-top box. A bright LED flashes a warning, so that you can press the over-ride button if you are awake and just happen to be sitting very still.
You can install the Netflix Socks adapter into your favourite pair of comfortable TV-watching socks, or you can download the knitting patterns to theme with your favourite Netflix shows, including Bloodline, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, BoJack Horseman or House of Cards.
LED indicator light (to alert you that the Pause function is about to trigger)
Battery
Momentary button (the over-ride switch)
Accelerometer
12” x 12” piece of felt
You should be able to make yourself the adapter for a few dollars, or you may even already have most of the parts if you have tinkered with Arduino before.
A total of 406 people responded to the survey, so it is a useful sample size. A significant majority of respondents were males in their twenties, which is not really surprising - males are more commonly affected by colour blindness than females, and the poll was conducted as an on-line survey, so some internet-savvy was required to even be aware of the poll, and then to complete it.
And the results of the survey?
In a nutshell - they really do work, for the majority of users.
You really need to read the whole article to get the full picture, but the Conclusion sums it up pretty well:
Conclusion
What we may conclude with some certainty is that people who have a language full of color words, are color blind, and then use corrective means to aid their color blindness, new conscious color perceptions are near instantaneous, possibly due to the broad processing capacity of the visual system, and there seems to be an intuition present, possibly due to knowledge from language, allowing these people to correctly assign their new colors with language. Overtime, their processing of new colors and their ability to discriminate across colors will be improved and the time course of this may be age dependent.
It's a pretty lengthy piece, but well worth taking the time if you have an interest in how the human brain perceives colour, what colour blindness is, and how the EnChroma glasses work. You might also want to participate in his survey after you've read through the article: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1VB4L7EQSkZ4M_IRrzjehXlMjToKTZcGQd3xKy3321cw/viewform
Porter's article explains the processes far more eloquently than I can. I've always been OK with Fire Engine Red, Canary Yellow, Sky Blue, and so on, but all of the intermediate and pastel colours have always been a problem, tending to blend into an undistinguished green-red-brown-pink-purple. Many colours that are dramatically different to most people are virtually indistinguishable for me.
The best description that I have been able to explain the EnChroma experience is like sitting in front of a well-adjusted colour TV, and then turning the “Colour / Saturation” settings up by about 25% – all the colours are “real”, but they become much more rich, vivid and saturated. Pastel shades which have very little colour intensity to my unaided eye now show much more saturation, with what were previously subtle differences between two shades now becoming much more distinguishable.
Green traffic lights are a good case in point – they've always looked white with a green tinge to my eye (like a fluorescent tube), but now they are definitely green. The other big “wow” factor for me is the sunset sky – I've always been vaguely aware of various shades of red, orange and pink at sunset, but they are generally very subtle and it’s only rarely bowled me over, but with the EnChroma lenses, every sunset is a delight! (I don’t know if this is what I've been missing my whole life, or of I'm seeing something that people with normal vision don’t see, but whatever it is, I really like it!)
But beyond the main EnChroma / Colour Blindness theme, there's some fascinating stuff about the impact of language and culture on our perception of colour. Did you know that the ancient Greeks didn't think the sky was blue? Or that there is a tribe in modern-day Namibia who can easily see the one square in the first pattern below which has a different shade of green (I sure can't), but struggle to see the blue square in the second pattern? Amazing stuff!
It was a pretty big decision for me to go with the EnChroma sunglasses without having the opportunity of trying them first, but there are no dealers in Australia at present. However, I did a fair bit of research first, and took some comfort from the 30-day money-back guarantee (which I won't be using!)
I don't want to disparage other glasses which are advertised as enhancing colour blindness, as they may work well for many people, but I tried another brand a few years ago, and they didn't have a huge effect for me. (The EnChroma lenses are chalk and cheese in comparison for me). With respect to the technology aspect (narrow-band "notch" filters vs. "broadband" dye filters) - I don't know whether the benefits of narrow-band filters will apply equally to everyone, and I don't know whether any of the other brands are now using narrow-band filters - their website aren't always clear on the exact filter technology being used.
Narrow-band filters (as used in EnChroma) cut out a very specific "notch" of wavelengths (colours) while allowing very similar adjacent wavelengths to pass almost unaffected. Broadband dye filters (which is what the brand I tried previously USED to use, but I am not sure about now) generally suppress a range of colours, but then a have smooth "shoulder" of rising transparency for the adjacent colours that you want to pass - think of it as a sheer-edged canyon versus a smooth river valley.
If I make a rainbow spectrum with a glass prism and look at it with the EnChroma lenses, there are two distinct dark lines in it, one in the Blue end, and one in the Red-Green end. See this shot which I took (yes, I'm a science geek!) which shows the effect:
I expect to see the same effect on natural rainbows (but I haven't seen any since I got the glasses) - they will presumably split into three coloured bands with a narrow gap between them.
I think this is why the EnChroma lenses work so well for me - the Red-Green "notch" drives a "wedge" between my Red and Green receptors, allowing my eye to see colours in the Red-Green range as either predominantly Red or predominantly Green, but it does have the side-effect of making a few colours that span right across the "notch" a richer, darker colour (drab olive greens and khaki colours tend to become richer in hue but darker).
The broadband dye filters that I tried a couple of years ago don't have such a strong differentiating effect for me, but others may get a different effect (and they may have changed their lens technology in the last couple of years).
I think that the Blue notch in the narrowband EnChroma filter is not particularly "useful" for enhancing my colour perception (as I am Red-Green colour blind), but it is also why some digital displays get a green cast - if the peak wavelength of the Blue pixel in the RGB display falls right in the "notch", then the Blue signal is heavily suppressed, and White on an RGB display with very little Blue signal tends to come out greenish. So far, it seems that some (but not all) outdoor digital signs have this effect, and OLED computer / phone / tablet displays in particular seem to have the effect, but LED computer screens and TVs seem to be fine. My guess is that the Blue pixel in those outdoor signs and OLED displays happens to fall right in the "notch", but other display types have a different spread of Blue in their RGB mix, so plenty of Blue still gets past on each side of the "notch".
I suspect that the exact narrow-band filter "notches" that EnChroma use on their Cx-65 Indoor / Computer lenses may be tuned differently, to avoid excessive tinting on digital displays (but I haven't tried a pair to be certain).
I haven't noticed any "weirdness" from the Blue notch in general viewing of "natural" objects - the sky is still sky blue, but maybe some very specifically coloured blue flowers might darken significantly? (I'm looking forward to Jacaranda season as a good test - Jacaranda trees in flower are an intense vivid colour to my unaided eye; I'll be interested to see if they change with the EnChroma lenses.)
That's a tricky question to answer, because when you think about it, you don't know what the world actually looks like through my eye's (or anyone else's), and I don't know how you perceive all the colours around you. The world looks "normal" to me, even though I perceive it differently to you.
I've been wearing the EnChroma sunglasses http://enchroma.com/ for a couple of days now, and the best overall description I can provide is to imagine turning the colour down on your TV or computer screen until it's black and white, and then bring it back up to 6/10 or 7/10 - that's sort of what the world looks to my unaided eye - the colours are all there, but they're all a bit muted and subdued.
(Actually, that's NOT how the world looks to me, but it's the best simulation I can think of!)
Now turn the colour back up to "normal" viewing (10/10), and then take it up to 11:
THAT'S roughly what the world looks like to me through EnChroma - everything becomes more saturated, and just "pops".
The effect is most noticeable on pastels and other unsaturated colours - they all become richer, denser and more saturated. If a particular shade has just a touch of red, or green or yellow, it will seemingly "boost" the colour to make it several shades "richer". You know how an external painted masonry wall will fade over time, and all your favourite shirts fade with multiple washes? It's like giving the wall a fresh coat of paint, or buying a new Hawaiian shirt.
Bright, saturated primary colours aren't affected nearly as much - but I can see most of them clearly anyway. Fire engines and mail boxes are still "signal red", the sky is still sky blue, Hi-Vis Safety Shirts are still canary yellow. But when you think about it, most of the colours in the world around us are a bit more subtle and muted than that, and it's these unsaturated colours which seem to get the strongest boost.
There were a few surprises as well:
Green traffic lights have always looked almost white to my eye, with only the slightest hint of colour - a bit like how "warm white" compact fluorescent bulbs look compared to the "cool white" ones - but now they are bright green. Also, for the first time ever, red traffic lights are brighter than amber traffic lights, whereas the amber has always been quite a bit brighter than the red to my eye.
The EnChroma lenses can give a strong green cast to some (but not all) digital displays – my SmartWatch and tablet are now green when they should be white (both have OLED screens), and there's an LED display board near my work which is now green, but my TV and phone look pretty normal (but a bit dark!), and as I sit at my computer typing this reply, the white is just white.
Interestingly, the blue LED status lights that you often see on electrical equipment seems to be a colour that my unaided eye sees very brightly, but the EnChroma lenses seem to block very strongly. I noticed it first on our TV Set-Top Box and a computer monitor at home, and also on the lift buttons at work. Even though the lift is well illuminated and I can see fine with the glasses on, the floor button back-lights almost disappear completely when I put the glasses on. I guess it depends on the exact colour spectrum of the RGB pixels - it would be interesting to see if this effect persists with the Cx-65 lenses, which are apparently optimised for digital screens and the like.
Drab greens and browns (I'm thinking of colours that you would probably describe as faded olive green or mission brown) become a LOT more dense, and therefore get quite a bit darker - again, it's a bit like over-painting a faded fence with new paint which is a couple of shades darker. I think these colours must lie pretty well in the red-green "notch" in the EnChroma transmission spectrum.
I suspect things like army camouflage would be pretty strongly affected by this - but I haven't seen any army vehicles or personnel since I got the EnChromas. (Or maybe I did, but they disappeared totally against a dark background?)
Anyway, that's enough of a report for now - I've got to get back outside to look at some more flower beds. (And look for that Jeep that I misplaced somewhere.)
I have taken a few spectroscopy images of the white light of a halogen bulb as viewed directly, and through a pair of normal (polarised) brown-tinted sunglasses, and through the EnChroma Cx 15 lenses.
Here's the direct halogen spectrum, unfiltered:
(Ignore the streak on the left-hand side - the interesting bit is the rainbow on the right.)
This is the spectrum as seen through the normal sunglasses - you can see that they suppress all wavelengths more or less uniformly:
And here's the view through the EnChroma lenses - you can see that they have two very distinct bands where virtually all light is blocked out, while other wavelengths pass with very little attenuation :
I've also shot a short video showing the effect - you should have no trouble working out when the normal sunglasses and the EnChroma lenses come between the light and the spectroscope:
I’ve just acquired a pair of EnChroma Cx Explorer sunglasses, which are
designed to boost colour perception for many people who suffer from colour
blindness. (See http://enchroma.com/ )
The theory is that for people with normal vision, the Red receptors in the eye respond strongly to red, but only moderately to red-green colours, while the Green receptors respond strongly to green, but only moderately to red-green colours. For people with Red-Green colour blindness (which is my problem), the red and green receptors in the eye overlap in their colour reception, and both respond strongly to similar wavelengths in the red-green range, so they don't differentiate between red and green as well as a normal eye.
The EnChroma lenses effectively transmit red and green, but largely block the intermediate red-green colours, so the red receptors will be triggered strongly by red but not by red-green (which are blocked by the lenses), while the green receptors will be triggered by green but not red-green.
Where these glasses differ from other products that I have seen advertised before is that these use narrow band-pass "notch" filters to cut out a very tightly defined band of red-green, whereas the more common type use pigmented dye filters, which filter out a wider and less clearly defined band of colours.
(The EnChroma lenses also have a "notch" for blue-green, which could be beneficial for some forms of colour-blindness, but is probably not so important for me - although maybe it helps with the overall effect as well?)
My
pair arrived yesterday.
So - do they work? In a word:
YES!
They're quite dark (just 14% overall light transmission), so
they're intended for full daylight use, not really suited for indoor use. If you're wondering - 14% transmission is pretty typical for a sunglass lens designed for full sunlight. E.g. Oakley provide a range of tints from 9% to 11% for "Extremely bright light", while 13% to 22% are rated for "Medium to bright light".
EnChroma offers three lens shades: 14% for "strong daylight", 25% for "medium-to-low light outdoor conditions" and brightly-lit indoor use, and 65% for general indoor / computer use. The 14% has the strongest colour-correcting effect, which is why I chose it.
In muted
light this morning (7:30 am, a bit of light cloud / mist), the effect outdoors was
obvious - a lot more contrast and definition between various shades of green
and red in the garden.
But as the sun broke through - WOW!
Colours became quite eye-popping - our dry winter lawn
became a vivid green, pastel flowers that always faded into the background
suddenly stood out ...
The most dramatic difference was driving in to work - so,
green traffic lights are actually green? Who knew?! J
(Green traffic lights have always looked almost white to my
eye, with only the slightest hint of colour, but now they are bright green.
Also, for the first time ever, red traffic lights are brighter than amber
traffic lights, whereas the amber has always been quite a bit brighter than the
red to my eye.)
Some unexpected effects - they can give a strong green cast
to some (but not all) digital displays - my Android tablet is now green when it
should be white, but my phone looks normal. There's an LED display board
outside the Convention Centre which is now green, but as I sit at my computer
typing this, the white background is just white. I guess it depends on the
exact colour spectrum of the pixels.
I'll by trying to catch a spectrum tonight using my Public Lab Spectrometer http://publiclab.org/wiki/spectrometer - I'm expecting to pick up a couple of strong "notches" in the white light spectrum. I'll post here when I've captured a useful spectrum.
(For the sceptics: There is some “real science” behind these
glasses, which differentiates them from other tinted sunglasses which have been
promoted as "cures" for colour blindness – e.g. see:
Wow! This is ground-breaking stuff! It's like discovering that the laws of thermodynamics no longer apply, or that E is NOT equal to mc^2!
In a world-first for mobile technology, Apple engineers have managed to package a screen larger than 4" into a handheld device which promises reasonable battery life, without sacrificing features or performance.
All very clever you say - but what's the point? After all, as so clearly stated on numerous occasions by Apple's marketing gurus, it's a well known fact that the human hand could not manage to hold or operate such a behemoth, and the human eye cannot take in so much visual information when presented at a normal hand-held viewing distance. Well, Apple's ergonomists believe that 21st Century humans have evolved new traits in response to our immersive information- rich environment that may enable a select few to deal with such a device.
But surely there would be no point in actually manufacturing and marketing a niche device with such limited appeal? Well, Apple has decided to give it a shot, with a new product called the iPhone 6 - and let's face it, if anyone is going to take such giant strides into the unknown, it can only be a company with the huge financial resources and reputation for innovation such as Apple - no other company would have the technical prowess or financial resources for such a brave move.
IT watchers wait with bated breath to see if this bold move will make or break Apple.
In late breaking news:
It seems those copycats at Android have done it again, managing to release a number of cheap copies, with a plethora of 4.5" to 5.5" (and bigger) models from multiple manufacturers, all flagrantly copied from Apple's groundbreaking work, before the iPhone 6 is actually released. Time for Apple to call the patent lawyers ...
