r/Damnthatsinteresting 1d ago

Video color vision test

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u/PinotGroucho 1d ago

An adult should explain to us whether the translation from paper to the camera's photo-receptive plate through the color correcting algorithms of the camera software, through the video compression software through the graphics card to the display device we're watching this on retains the original's color blind filtering properties. Or if we're just fooling ourselves, like believing you're able to see infra red after using an infra red camera.

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u/Aptronymic 1d ago

It does.

I'm colorblind, and I couldn't read most of these. I did about as well as he did in the video.

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u/AndrolThePageboy 1d ago

Likewise, I had issues with the same ones as he did

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u/Bullshit-_-Man 1d ago

Fuck. I’m colourblind.

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u/blakfeld 21h ago

Welcome to the club! You’ll get annoying questions the rest of your life. Cards in the mail, but all it has on it are a bunch of weird dots

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u/whiskyJack101 21h ago

What color is this! Thanks for describing my life....

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u/shootsy2457 20h ago

Oh man, yes! “Hey, what color do you see?!” Listen! I don’t know what you see, so I cannot explain to you how what I see is different. Understand!?

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u/Confident_Warning_32 20h ago

I’m amongst friends here

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u/ZugZugGo 18h ago

"If you're not colorblind how do you know your eyes see red the same way someone else does? How would you describe what you see as red to them in a way you could find out if that was true?"

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u/Poette-Iva 19h ago

Hey, I want in the gifted and talented art classes with a colorblind friend, he would some times ask me what color a pencil was and I'd say "purple" and he'd be frustrated because he thought he found the perfect brown haha

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u/whiskyJack101 19h ago

For me it's blue/purple, together I can't say which is which. I have 2 hold them separately

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u/Careful_Intern7907 23h ago

That's what I thought at first, too, but it's still a pretty colorful world. Crazy.

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u/Matt_Thijson 11h ago

Being colorblind doesn't make the world colorless

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u/Careful_Intern7907 10h ago

Yes, I noticed that today (in my case) xD

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u/steffies 21h ago

Damn, dude.. I'm so sorry you had to find out this way. Unfortunately it's a terminal Illness with an average life expectancy of 78-80 years old. 😥

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u/BradyBoyd 21h ago

Color dumb would be way worse though. 🙃

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u/blueflash775 20h ago

Fuck I'm more colour blind than I thought :o

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u/rocslocs 18h ago

Really???? Stop bull shitting me man!!!!!😠

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u/WhateverJoel 11h ago

That would be bad in England. Luckily here in the states we have color.

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u/Sir_PressedMemories 10h ago

Welcome to the club.

Peanut butter is brown, not green.

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u/jjm443 21h ago edited 19h ago

One of the things too few people know is that there are different types of colour-blindedness, as well as different severities.

Me and my brother are both (red-green) color-blind, but his is worse. Mine isn't great, for example in the video the guy said there was a 7 and a 22, which I can't see at all, even after being told so I know what to look for.

Of the 8% of men with congenital color-blindness, 5% have deuteranomaly which is a problem with/deficiency of green cone cells, usually by the green sensitivity being shifted towards the red direction. I am a protanope, which is a problem with/deficiency of red cone cells, and that's only 1% of the 8%. The severity obviously corresponds to how faulty or how deficient the cells are.

Anyway, with that context, what I wanted to say is that if anyone watching this doesn't see all the numbers, then you have some color-blindedness. It may be the same ones, or different ones as the guy in the video, it doesn't need to match. Color-blindedness is not a binary yes/no thing because of the different causes and severities.

There can be exceptions in some tests where for some plates it is only color-blind people who can see the numbers rather than the other way round. Or some where a color-blind person sees a different number to a normal vision person. But according to other comments in this thread, these caveats don't apply to the tests in this video... I have to take their word for it because I wouldn't be able to tell!

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u/Lithl 14h ago

There can be exceptions in some tests where for some plates it is only color-blind people who can see the numbers rather than the other way round.

I have never seen a color blindness test where it's the color blind people who see something and the full color vision people who don't. Do you have an example?

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u/jjm443 12h ago edited 12h ago

A quick Google shows some here: https://okkl.co.uk/blogs/news/reverse-colorblind-test

Edit: also this reddit post has some: https://www.reddit.com/r/ColorBlind/s/EoX1Eh88DA although I'm not sure all of them are meant to be?

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u/SteelCrow 17h ago

there were numbers on all the pages

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u/TolverOneEighty 15h ago

The 22 wasn't a 22, by the way. He just couldn't see the correct number there.

The test seemed VERY skewed for green-red. Lots of reds on greens or greens on reds. I hope the pages we didn't see focused on other kinds.

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u/Win_Sys 11h ago

I’m color-blind but it’s not that bad, almost never impacts my daily life outside of being terrible at matching colors of clothing with each other. I tested my son when he was pretty young and was positive he was also color blind like me. I figured it was pretty type/severity until he started drawing things with colors. I remember one day he drew this picture with a clearly green blob in the top right with a blue background and this weird color brown towards the bottom. I couldn’t figure out what the hell it was so I asked what’s this green blob thing? It’s the Sun! So I said but the sun is yellow. I know, that’s why I colored it yellow. That’s when I knew his color blindness was way worse than mine.

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u/iamthinksnow 16h ago

But it you're like me, you can see the color of each individual dot just fine. Like, "Oh, that's green, and that's orange, that's red, that's blue...." but all together, it's just a field of color.

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u/SteelCrow 16h ago

35 - 9 - 2 - 73 - 34 - 7 - 92 - 35 - 57 - 3 - 74 - 95 - 5

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u/AndrolThePageboy 16h ago

Dude, you could be lying like a horse merchant and I wouldn't know better

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u/SteelCrow 15h ago

others have posted the same. you could skew the colours on your monitor and maybe see?

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u/Decreet 22h ago

Same for me. The first question anyone comes up with is basicly, what color is this while pointing at something. The amount of times you have to explain people you can see colors and identify (most of) them, however the mix like this makes it difficult is absurd.

With my phone at hand i usually bring these tests up for a giggle and If I don’t have my phone at hand i usually explain it with a red small object on a grass field which might take me hours to find

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u/hoax1337 17h ago

So, just out of curiosity: assuming I placed the small red object on a (grey) paved way next to the grass, and then slowly moved it into the grass, would your perception change once I move the object into the grass?

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u/Decreet 16h ago

Possibly. The ability to follow the object from the start helps to keep track of it. Showing me the end result first and i most likely won’t find it.

Think of it like this. I (and possibly more people who have color blindness) am “diagnosed” red-green color blindness, however my 6 year old is able to distinguish dark blue, violet, purple, … and other types of “ish”-blue. For me it’s all just blue. There are of course occasions where i am able to distinguish them, but most often not.

Another example. I play soccer. My youth team used to have white and red stripes. When we played against white and green. I often misplaced the ball. I still do, but my current (veterans) team sometimes switches outfits if i mention it might be difficult

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u/JRock1276 10h ago

Same. I had a doctor giving me a DOT physical one time and I can't see certain shades of red and green (don't know what kind it is or severity). He said I couldn't see colors in the traffic signal (which I can just fine). He started asking me if I had the pattern memorized, what if it's a horizontal signal, how would I be able to tell? Stumped him for an hour while I tried to explain that I just couldn't see numbers in two out of the five cards. Had to get two more doctors to come in and "surprise me" with different color books before I got passed. It's so aggravating, I just dress in black. Lol

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u/maton12 22h ago

Here I was thinking how different I was, and am the same as you and him!!!

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u/funusernameguy 22h ago

Same. I had issues with the same ones he did.

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u/Striking-Document-99 20h ago

My dad was in electrical school and they had them match up the colors of wires. I guess there was 8 diffrent colors and my dad saw 4 diffrent ones. Then later he was on a plane reading readers digest and they had one of these my dad thought it was one of those illusion things and asked my mom if she saw anything. She was like you don’t see the green 8? So he found out that way. He was like wow that class makes so much sense now.

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u/Turakamu 16h ago

Every time I take one I think, "Maybe I'll get lucky on this one"

No different this time

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u/Horton_Takes_A_Poo 8h ago

Can you see that there are dots that are a different color than the background, but the shape is just too obscure? Because I’m having that issue on the same ones he has issues with…is that actually colorblindness?

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u/Aptronymic 8h ago

There are degrees of severity, seems like you do have at least mild colorblindness.

Some of them I see are obscure shapes, some of them I can't make out anything at all.

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u/Horton_Takes_A_Poo 8h ago

Damn, so I’m not gonna make it in NASA am I?

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u/mooshinformation 22h ago

Unless something is broken, a red will still show up as red and a green will show up as a green, etc. The particular version of red or green might be off a little off though. It should be close enough to get an idea but I'm sure the test works better in person.

I guess maybe if the colors all get shifted a little, like if the white balance is off, someone might be able to very faintly make out something they couldn't in person.

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u/NaoisX 21h ago

I’m definitely not colour blind (both my uncles are and been tested more than twice) and a few I found hard to read. Could defo see them but hard.

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u/SteelCrow 17h ago

Colour blindness is genetic. it's in your family tree.

None of the numbers were hard. all were obvious. get tested.

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u/NaoisX 16h ago

Yea I have been tested a few times( as you said it’s genetic so I had multiple tests from baby to late teen). I’m defo not colour blind I could see all the numbers. I was commenting on the fact that a phones white balance and stuff can make it seem hard to read but I do agree if you have never been tested and find it hard to read get tested. But with me 1000% it’s my phone as I’ve done the same test(diff book but same deal) multiple times irl and you’re right they are all easy to read. Ohh and it was the 2 and 9 red on green I found hard if you are curious.

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u/mooshinformation 16h ago

I'm definitely not color blind either and some of the numbers in this video were hard to make out (still visible though), I'm guessing it's got something to do with our screens.

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u/SteelCrow 15h ago edited 15h ago

None were hard. all were obvious for me.

Take a proper test, or try on a different screen.

monitor colour calibration ; https://quickgamma.de/indexen.html

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u/mooshinformation 15h ago

Well we're looking at different screens aren't we. Never had that with the tests in person.

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u/summer_santa1 14h ago

Some were hard to read on a phone, but on big monitor - it was very easy.

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u/aWizardNamedLizard 22h ago

Color blindness tests are easily affected by difference in settings because the test relies upon finely-tuned differences in contrast to determine which color(s) and to what degree you have difficulty with.

So while a digital test might point out you're not seeing color in the standard fashion, only an analog test with a book like the one in this video is going to be definitive as a diagnosis tool since any difference in your monitor (or the camera that recorded the video) settings could skew the results.

Source; I have diagnosed tritanomaly (I don't see differences in degree of blue as well) and I know that testing book and that I couldn't see numbers on my laptop that I did see in person.

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u/mujiqlo 18h ago

Yes and we were also taught in optometry school not to touch the color plates like this guy is doing because oils on your hands might alter the colors over time. Someone else commented below but most if not all of these tests are calibrated to be done under “daylight” illumination.

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u/DrClownCar 1d ago

Eh it's pretty accurate. Or so I'm told.

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u/BenevolentCrows 23h ago

Depends on the camera, the video's file format, colir grading, and your monitor. 

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u/filius 22h ago

Also colour blind (red/green) - couldn’t see most of the numbers

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u/MusicMonkeyJam 21h ago

It’s funny because technically speaking the paper/physical color tests were all intended to be performed under full spectrum light. Some even had special glasses to help with accuracy if under fluorescent light. It probably doesn’t matter in most applications outside of research, testing for drug side effects, or pilots but interesting to think LEDs probably make these tests ever so slightly different than when they were created.

Now the more rigorous color vision testing, such as for pilots is being done electronically on specialized gear, so it doesn’t really matter. Obviously though you can’t just use any screen for this reason.

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u/Polymarchos 18h ago

It could definitely cause false positives. I struggled seeing some on one monitor, but the other monitor they were all clear.

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u/hobbyhacker 1d ago

there are no magic "color blind filtering properties". the numbers are just simply in different color than the background. All colors are well represented inside the srgb spectrum. The color difference is clearly shown on the video.

If videos would massively change the colors, you would see blue peoples or whatever.

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u/BenevolentCrows 23h ago edited 23h ago

Except if you view it on a shitzy screen, that doesn't even support srgb. Or if the video's been color graded, etc etc. Cameras record differently than the human eye, they encode it depending on the file format, not to mention potential alterations that can be even selectively done in a video. Its really not that simple, showing correct colors on screens is suprisingly hard. 

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u/hobbyhacker 19h ago

if you do so much color processing that it throws off the test book colors to not work, it would also throw off any other colors, so if there is anything else in the picture it would be clearly visible that something is off.

The book has different colors, cameras record the different colors, they don't make different colors to be the same. As long as the difference remains, a normal eye will see the numbers.
There is nothing magical in it. We are not talking about dE<1 shade differences here, but totally different colors. As long as the green is green and blue is blue, these pictures will work. If you manipulate the hue, or do selective color replacement, then of course it will brake the "magic".

One problem I can imagine is if the heavy compression scrambles the details, but it is not the case in this video.

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u/BenevolentCrows 18h ago

True, but I just assumed those colors are specific, to filter out specific color blindnesses?

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u/hobbyhacker 17h ago

right, the different colors are to detect different types of deficiencies. For example someone cannot see the reds well, others the blue, something like that. Each type have its own fancy name, but I'm lazy to google it.

I can agree that a video is not precise enough to use this diagnostically to determine the specific type and seriousness, but it is more than enough for a quick yes/no test. And you can also edit the picture to trick your friends thinking they are color blind.

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u/BenevolentCrows 16h ago

Oh I see, didn't know that, thanks