How many of us are color blind?

Are you color blind?

  • Yes

    Votes: 1 6.7%
  • No

    Votes: 14 93.3%

  • Total voters
    15

Thread Starter

Jonlate

Joined Dec 21, 2017
118
So, as a color blind person, and often asking my wife what colors are on a resister, or blowing a circuit because the wires are the wrong way around, I wondered how many others have this problem?

I am quite badly color blind, on green/brown, blue/purple, brown/red etc so it’s quite fun sometimes.

So does anyone have any good ideas on how to survive without killing myself? What ideas do you have?
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
There's a growing amount of software out there that maps real world colors into colors/patterns that you can discriminate. I imagine there are a lot of apps for smartphones out there by now. So I would imagine you can use your smartphone camera to view the wiring/resistors and have it display them in a way that you can distinguish them.
 
I learned long ago to use Red-Green carefully in presentations and tried to always contrast one or the other with Blue when I wanted to make a point graphically. Whenever possible, I also used an underlying B&W contour gradient (e.g., colored area over diagonal B&W lines) to avoid just a color alone The audiences were typically male-dominated. See here for more.
 

Alec_t

Joined Sep 17, 2013
14,280
I wondered how many others have this problem?
According to one of my college lecturers many moons ago, about 1 in 7 men have deficient red/green vision, whereas for women the figure is about 1 in 2000 ! I guess the numbers depend on the degree of deficiency considered.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
Just buy SMT chips, which you can't see anyway. Good color vision was critical for some jobs like the bomb defusing tech. ;)
 

AlbertHall

Joined Jun 4, 2014
12,344
It might just be that I am getting old but chips used to be marked clearly in white but now they seem to be marked by black ink on the black chip (or are they very, very shallow engraving?).
At least the teensy weensy resistors are marked in white on black.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Some smart people at enchroma have changed the lives of many people with color perception issues. Simple notch filters allow people to discriminate colors much more clearly. No electronics, just notch color filters with sharp cut-offs.

An example of someone emotionally overwhelmed by seeing colors for the first time (this a typical reaction for teenagers and adults using these glasses for the first time)...



The technology

http://enchroma.com/technology/
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
5,234
Not to belittle the color blind folk, but my issue is presbyopia. Dog, I miss my young eyes...especially with the work I do -- lots of little tiny surface mount stuff.

I could see clearly 4 inches from my face until I turned 40. Then everything went to hell -- seemingly overnight.

Many years later, I am still not used to not being able to see without cheaters. It really, really aggravates me, especially since one eye has a different diopter than the other.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
Not to belittle the color blind folk, but my issue is presbyopia. Dog, I miss my young eyes...especially with the work I do -- lots of little tiny surface mount stuff.

I could see clearly 4 inches from my face until I turned 40. Then everything went to hell -- seemingly overnight.

Many years later, I am still not used to not being able to see without cheaters. It really, really aggravates me, especially since one eye has a different diopter than the other.
I'm very nearsighted but the one good effect of getting older is my vision is actually improving at short distances but I do need more light.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
It could be but in any case if your eyes don't focus too well then more light helps as it closes the iris and that produces a better focus (like a pinhole camera).
If his eyes are not dialating in dim lighting, and that lack of dilation is allowing him to focus like a pinhole camera, he has more issues than needing glasses. If his pupils are not reacting appropriately to lighting conditions, that is a sign of brain damage or other neurological issues.
 
Not to belittle the color blind folk, but my issue is presbyopia. Dog, I miss my young eyes...especially with the work I do -- lots of little tiny surface mount stuff.


I could see clearly 4 inches from my face until I turned 40. Then everything went to hell -- seemingly overnight.

Many years later, I am still not used to not being able to see without cheaters. It really, really aggravates me, especially since one eye has a different diopter than the other.
I am definitely no ophthalmologist, but I encourage you to discuss the specifics if/when you go to have a new lens...it was very difficult to explain to relatives the idea of correcting one but not both focal points. It was excruciatingly difficult to convince my mother to make sure to tell them that she did not want perfect far vision (she was used to glasses) at the expense of having to use magnifying len's for near vision (she is accustomed and comfortable taking her glasses off for reading). Post successful cataract surgery, she is happy and reading as she did...and wearing glasses for distance as she did before the clouding.

Maybe I am not completely up-to-date on the latest lens replacement methods, but as I see it, we do not yet know how to reshape an eyeball (lens, yes, and lens replacement, yes; eyeball, no).

I have the beginnings of nuclear cataracts (as is common in many folks). This came up when I had a lengthy examination for a small vitreal detachment (not retinal) which is also common. I brought in my own diagrams, and politely but assertively had a long discussion with the MD - and that is when the cataracts came up. It is definitely in my future, but my point is - go and have it checked out and regularly, it is worth it!
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
especially since one eye has a different diopter than the other.
Ask your doc for a contact lense for one eye to kale it match the other eye. Then wear glasses. Life is perfect again.

Two different diopters is terrible because, even when each sys is focused, the differing correction makes things slightly different size and your brain works very hard to make it seem "normal."
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
5,234
Two different diopters is terrible...
I concur. Reading is far less stressful when I am wearing my contacts under my cheaters.

Unfortunately, I've lost the long-term tolerance to contacts so I rarely wear them -- except when running so I can see oncoming cars and pretty girls ("Hoot, hoot!").

There are now silicone contacts that are supposed to allow more oxygen to pass thereby extending comfortable wear time. But they feel oily in my eyes.
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
5,234
And there was a reference to "cheaters".

There's a joke in there somewhere.
If I were close enough for the cheaters to be useful, I would, in fact, be cheating.

But, the girls sure do love to watch me run in my Spandex running shorts -- worn only for practical purposes, of course.

Edit: I tried to post a photo of me, but I am surprised "old man in spandex running shorts" turns up nothing on Google. I'll have to have a talk with Sundar about that.
 
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