Color Blindness

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J.opt

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Is there anything new, or anything being developed to help color blind people?

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The short answer is no.

There have, however, been recent recapitulations of the hypothesis that chromatic filters may aid those with colour vision deficiencies. This idea dates back to the 19th century, and was proposed by August Seebeck.

Many have recommended the use of a monocular chromatic filter; this will produce a binocular rivalry in luminance for certain colours (the so called "lustre effect"). Whilst it is a nice idea in theory, there is no evidence to suggest that lustre can be used as a surrogate for colour perception. It is also worthwhile to note that it is theoretically possible that "notch" filters may be of benefit in anomalous trichromacy (i.e. they might genuinely improve colour discrimination).

So why do many colour deficients say that chromatic filters help? In most cases they use them in a "cognitive way" (as suggested by Schmidt). For example, a monochromat would be able to distinguish between red and green objects if he or she were armed with a red filter and allowed to successively compare the appearance of the objects with and without the filter (the green object would appear to darken when the red filter was held over the eye(s), whilst the red would not).
 
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