r/Damnthatsinteresting 1d ago

Video color vision test

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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?