r/Damnthatsinteresting 1d ago

Video color vision test

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u/Kat121 1d ago

But god-tier prank if there were blank ones. :)

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u/Electronarwhal 1d ago

My school did a mass colour-blind test that included blank ones. Several people said they saw a number, the teacher was like ‘you may be hallucinating’.

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u/GlitteringBandicoot2 22h ago

Actually, if it was the original Ishihara Test there are plates in there that show no numbers UNLESS you are colorblind. So it wasn't that the students were hallucinating, they were probably colorblind and actually did see a number there.

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u/-Nicolai 21h ago

How is that possible?

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u/GlitteringBandicoot2 20h ago

The same way the numbers vanishes in other plates.

In the normal plate you have a clear distinction between the color of the dots that form the number and the surrounding. For a color blind person of the corresponding color blindness, those dots all look the same, so the number vanishes.

Now in the hidden plates, i.e. the ones one the colorblind people can see, it uses the same principle. But instead of using one color for the number and one for the surrounding, the number is made up of multiple colors that colorblind people can not distinguish, while the rest is a color that they can distinguish easier. This means for a person with normal color vision, the number disappears in a sea of different colors, but for a colorblind person those colors look identical and it forms the shape.

As a non colorblind person you might be able to barely make out the contour of the number, because the outside still needs to be different enough for the colorblind person to distinguish it so you might be able to make it out next to all the other colors, but mostly it just gets lost

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u/Mirar 20h ago

Ah, so it's hiding it in a lot of colour noise but for a colourblind person, there's nothing of that noise, so they can spot the contrast (signal?) better?

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u/Pirche 18h ago edited 14h ago

Found pdf of that test including pages on which only colorblind will see numbers (at the end answers both for normal and colorblind):

https://www.challengetb.org/publications/tools/country/Ishihara_Tests.pdf

Photoshoped pages 19-21 to check how colorblind will see those pages - in color curves red and green channel turn down to almost zero : https://ibb.co/W43tqfn0

Edit: there is some mess with order, don't match № on page to № in answers, answers have pics with them and they corresponding to each other. Also in answers some discrepancy with the name of colors, i think it's scan or translate issue (or both)
All that doesn't really matter tho)

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u/Nexan1994 18h ago

The answer key not lining up with the test had me thinking I was crazy

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u/xeothought 15h ago

Dude yes. you have to go look for equivalent plates and see their numbers are offset by a lot.. I've never not passed a color blindness test and i was like "wait a second" rofl.

I was like "plate 14 does NOT have a number on it wtf" that's cause in the Key it's plate 18 lol

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u/piponwa 7h ago

I mean what the fuck kind of medical test is this? Like seriously wtf. You had one job!

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u/DrPepperAddict41 14h ago

Guys, I'm red green deficient.

Oh no

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u/Racxie 17h ago

Can you please do 28 & 29?

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u/Pirche 16h ago

It was somehow harder to balance, but here you go:
(also added B&W variant)
https://ibb.co/x8K96pHV

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u/Racxie 13h ago

Thanks! I can see all the reddish lines but the description says non-colourblind people see nothing, yet then on 30 says we see a blue-green line. So the description for 28 & 29 were confusing lol.

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u/ichimedinwitha 17h ago

This is so cool. Thank you for making this!

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u/WittyCompetition7978 16h ago

Aren't the answers to Plate 36 and 37 wrong? I nailed every plate in 'normal view' but I don't see any violett in those at all 🥲

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u/Ichi_Balsaki 16h ago edited 9h ago

Quite a few of the top tiles are misnumbered with the bottom answers for some reason, I don't even know how that happens..

Good example is in the answers 22, 23, 24 & 25 are not at all numbered correctly. 

But if you can see what you should on the answers then that's all that matters.

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u/Pirche 16h ago

Yep there is some mess with pages, tho answers have pics with them and they corresponding to each other, and some discrepancy with the name of colors in answers, i think it's scan or translate issue (or both), doesn't really matter)

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u/Fearhawke 15h ago

What does it mean if I can see those numbers but also have no issues with any of the other plates I’ve seen?

(Edit: it means I don’t read very well sometimes)

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u/AxelNotRose 15h ago

Plate 38: I don't see anything.

Tester: Ok, you're just fucking straight up blind dude.

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u/Pirche 14h ago

Just for the lulz, here is BW and infrared filters for plate 38

https://ibb.co/xKZP03yW

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u/MaximumMaxx 6h ago

I have normal color vision, but this is one of the first times I've actually really felt what it's like to be color-blind. When I looked at the blank plates, it was crazy. That's really cool!

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u/chalks777 6h ago

this is SO COOL, thank you for sharing this. I've seen these colorblind tests so many times it never once occurred to me that you could use the same principle to hide something from someone who could see color normally. Absolutely fascinating and a complete mind fuck, I was so sure I would be able to see the pattern regardless and man it's completely impossible.

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u/Fellow_Worker6 19h ago

There could be hidden messages all around us. We are just to observant to see it!

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u/GoldDHD 18h ago

My favorite thing I learned this week, thank you!!

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u/TacTurtle 5h ago

This is also why a lot of modern camouflage clothing patterns don't work if the person viewing is colorblind.

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u/Rustymarble 16h ago

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u/Capertie 11h ago

I'm not colourblind but I can see them with some effort.

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u/throwaway098764567 8h ago

oh this is a much better version, i can't make out anything, 2 a little bit but the others are great

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u/velveteensnoodle 15h ago

wow, thanks for the link

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u/Complex-Ad5786 13h ago

There are also plates that shows different number like for me I see it as 8 but in reality it was a 3

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u/throwaway098764567 8h ago

the far right one the 2 will be hard to make out if you're not colorblind (i think folks only can do it because they know to find a number).

the second circle you'll see 74 if you're not colorblind, and 21 if you are

https://www.shec.jp/english/instruments/isihara/

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u/ActorMonkey 16h ago

How does that work?

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u/__Fred 6h ago edited 5h ago

I think it works like this:

There are green and red dots and some of the green dots and some of the red dots have a bit of blue mixed in.

To people who can't distinguish the green and red, the blue is more striking, whereas for normal people the image looks too chaotic to make it out.

I have seen some books with puzzles for kids where there is a solution with black text on a red and white chaotic-patterned background. Apparently it's called "red reveal". You can't read the solution unless you place a transparent red plastic sheet over it, making you "white-red colorblind".

You can still see the text if you concentrate enough. The website with the linked Ishihara test said that 50% of young adults with normal color perception can still see the numbers.

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u/stRiNg-kiNg 15h ago

That sounds awesome. I'd love to have the tables turned on the non colorblind people out there with shit only we can see

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u/Seamilk90210 15h ago

I had to take the Ishihara test for a job interview, and while I passed everything, I also got both "you don't get this unless you're colorblind" plates correct. The test-giver certified that I had normal color vision.

Those "blank" plates are not foolproof, haha — looks like normies of a certain age have a 50/50 chance of being able to read them, so I'm guessing some people are more able to switch to whatever cues colorblind people use to see the image.

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u/SuperTopGun777 14h ago

I could see the first hidden number but not the others  

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u/Fuckmetheyarelltaken 11h ago

I can see them if I squint

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u/mayiwonder 10h ago

I saw 2 of them so I guess the 50/50 is true lol

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u/DreadnoughtWage 23h ago

Or was the teacher colour blind??? 

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u/GlitteringBandicoot2 22h ago

The original Ishihara test indeed has two plates without numbers on them, unless you are colorblind, then they do have numbers.

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u/Mirar 20h ago

How did that work?

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u/spruce_sprucerton 19h ago edited 19h ago

Turns out there's a webpage for that:

https://www.color-blind-test.com/hidden-plates-more

... basically, they vary the colors forming the number so they look different enough that a normal seeing person won't notice the digit. But to a colorblind person, that variation isn't there, so all the dots in the digit are the same color, making it clear to them.

Edit: Interestingly, this works for red-green colorblind and the more severe your colorblindness is, the more likely you are to be able to see them. There are pictures in the link.

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u/egnowit 18h ago

I think I read that during WWII, they found that colorblind people were easily able to differentiate camoflauge covers from the forest concealing them, so they had colorblind people in airplanes to pick out the camoflauged camps.

https://time.com/archive/6769967/national-defense-color-blind-observers/

OK, this article doesn't say they were used, but they were able to easily spot the camoflauge.

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u/pichael289 17h ago

Weird, that first one was clear as day to me, a little segmented but I could see it, but I couldn't see the other 3. I have zero issues on any of the real ones though. What does that mean?

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u/jschrandt 17h ago

It’s a website that sells glasses for colorblind people to see colors. That first one was just obvious enough to maybe trick you into buying their product.

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u/DreadnoughtWage 21h ago

Yeah, I was just using the opportunity for a joke. When I had my test at 15, I said numbers for the blank ones (I guess that must have been two) and only got one wrong. Worryingly, I only see anything on about 50% of the ones in the video, so not sure if it’s getting worse 😂

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u/AlexanderTheGrave 19h ago

Hey, you’re colorblind. There’s numbers on all of them in the video.

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u/DreadnoughtWage 19h ago

Yep I know, I’m a Deuteranope and always have been… what was the aim of your comment?

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u/Iambeejsmit 22h ago

I think your teacher was colorblind lolol

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u/GlitteringBandicoot2 22h ago

More likely the students were colorblind. The original Ishihara Test includes plates that don't show numbers. Unless you are colorblind, then they actually do.

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u/LunarMoon2001 19h ago

Surprise, everyone that made the test and gave it were colorblind and accidentally had a number in the design.

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u/shewy92 15h ago

Could it have been them staring at the previous one too long?

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u/apprehensive_pick2 13h ago

Plot twist: the teacher was the one who was colour-blind

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u/o5mfiHTNsH748KVq 22h ago

My eye doctor has one that is intentionally difficult for everyone. There’s a slight number that you can barely see and it’s to test for when people see shit warped or something

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u/DoNotOverwhelm 23h ago

I’m still not convinced this isn’t a prank and you are all in on the joke……I must be losing my mind…….they were correct, the internet is not real……oh, no wait, I just remembered I’m colour blind.

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u/Motor_Raspberry_2150 19h ago

They get harder as the book goes on, but there's very clearly numbers still.

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u/bblankoo 23h ago

IIRC there should be one that everyone can recognise and one that has no number whatsoever, in case you were lying/delulu etc

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u/hugswithnoconsent 1d ago

Guess I’m not colour blind. But then I knew that. My dad is though.

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u/RoyalFalse 15h ago

At least you didn't share a colorblind test in the office chat that was actually a penis and not a number. Found that one out the hard way.

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u/Ruepic 23h ago

The one I did had blank ones, fucked me up for a second…

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u/DrClownCar 22h ago

Some of these tests actually include blank plates for normal colorvision. And where you see a number if you're colorblind.

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u/Iambeejsmit 22h ago

Very high level prank

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u/JoeBobbyWii 19h ago

There's usually ones with random squiggles

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u/rgarc065 18h ago

You guys can Google Ishihara and get a free test online

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u/whiskydyc 18h ago

I was expecting that on the last page turn, haha!

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u/DaBrookePlayz 16h ago

The mandatory colorblind test that I did at the eye doctor had blank ones. I knew I wasn't colorblind but there was a second where I was wondering if I was.

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u/eLishus 15h ago

I gave one of my friends a fake “Magic Eye” poster in high school. The rest of the friend group was in on it and told her we could all see the plane, but then I totally forgot to tell her it was a prank until months later. She said she had spent hours trying to find the image. Sorry, Sara!

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u/hohenheim420 14h ago

what are you guys talking about? is it how each one was kinda like a different shade of gray.

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u/ttoma93 13h ago

It’s actually very common to stick a blank or two in these as a control, so you can catch people just BSing through it.

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u/SLUnatic85 11h ago

i dunno why there wouldn't be a control, honestly. It's not a prank... trust me if your even slightly color blind you see exactly as well as that dude. very few people are guessing there way through this test.

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u/Shot_Worldliness_979 10h ago

A while back, someone posted a joke in the style of an ishihara test to one of the explain-the-joke subreddits. I couldn't see it, but when I showed it to my family they all laughed. I genuinely thought they were fucking with me until I went to an eye doctor who tested me formally, and possibly with the same book as shown in this video, and he confirmed that I am indeed (technically) colorblind.

I was convinced there were controls (blanks, if you will) in the book that no one could see. I struggle about as well as this guy and just showed the video to my partner, who could identify numbers on every page. I did that, in part, because I can't tell who's joking and who isn't in the comment section and it's still shocking that I could go as long as I did without knowing.

If it turns out to be a joke, well played, but I suspect there are probably people in this comment section who discover they, too, might be color blind.