Lea Rottmann, 5 May 2017

Enchroma – Color for the Color Blind

enchroma-glasses-alleviates-color-blindness

Human beings are normally able to see about one million distinct shades of color.
Unfortunately, millions of people worldwide are affected by color blindness and cannot fully take part in the beautiful and colorful world we live in. Those suffering from this condition only see around 5% to 10% as many colors. New studies have found that approximately one in twelve men and one in 200 women suffer from some kind of color blindness.

What is color blindness?

Color blindness, also called color vision deficiency (CVD), is a condition where a person’s eyes are not able to see colors under normal light. People struggling with color blindness have a hard time separating colors.
Most people afflicted with this condition are not blind to color per se, but have reduced abilities seeing colors. Humans normally have three types of color-senses in their eyes: senses for the colors red, green and blue. The wavelengths of light that these three senses absorb have overlapping regions. To put it bluntly, color blindness is a malfunction that causes wavelengths to overlap too much, resulting in poor color discrimination. The conditions range over a variety of different types of color vision impairment, red-green color blindness being the most common.
Color vision deficiency is inherited in most cases. However, it can indeed develop over time. Basically, if the necessary genes influencing color vision are damaged or non-existent, color blindness occurs.

How does color blindness affect everyday life?

Even though color vision deficiency is merely impairment to eyesight and does not bring any other bodily implications with it, people suffering from color blindness do in fact encounter numerous difficulties in their daily life.
Color-name confusion can impede communication and the proper expression of thoughts or feelings. For people with color blindness, when colors bled together they are even more difficult to distinguish. For this reason, they might have problems telling the difference between similar shades of colors and as a result name colors by the wrong name.
Moreover, difficulty with traffic signals can be a serious problem and danger for the color blind. In case of a strong color vision deficiency the green, yellow and red colors of a traffic light may appear very pale and indistinguishable to an affected person. Especially in low light or at night this could lead to slowed recognition and reaction, affecting safety on the road.

What are Enchroma glasses and how do they work?

Enchroma glasses may look like ordinary tinted glasses, but have an astounding effect when it comes to the proper vision of color. Enchroma glasses are special glasses combining color vision science and the newest optical technologies on the market. They are the only specialty eyewear that alleviates red-green color blindness and enhances colors, enabling the wearer to perceive colors more accurately and intense.
To exemplify, if a person suffers from red-green color blindness their red and green photopigments responsible for those colors overlap more than those of a person with normal color vision. This makes it impossible for them to detect certain colors. Enchroma has now found a way to ease this by creating a specialized lens that filters out specific colors and simultaneously intensifying the missing colors. This lens separated the overlapping red and green photopigments, improving the sight of reds and greens.
If people with normal color vision were to put on Enchroma glasses, they would see a so-called “color boost” effect. This means that certain colors appear to stand out with an extraordinary vibrancy.

In the following some facts about Enchroma glasses are listed:

Originally protective glasses for laser surgery, then accidently discovered to be glasses that enhance color
The discovery lead to research and advancement to glasses that provide optical aid for the color blind
Enchroma glasses were first launched in 2012
Price for a pair of Enchroma glasses ranges from 269$ (Kids’s glasses) to 349$ or 429$ (Adult version)
Available in different colors and frame designs

Lea Rottmann

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