A visual neuroscientist realized he saw green and blue differently to his wife. He designed an interactive site that has received over 1.5m visits:
It started with an argument over a blanket.
"I'm a visual neuroscientist, and my wife, Dr Marissé Masis-Solano, is an ophthalmologist," says Dr Patrick Mineault, designer of the viral web app ismy.blue. "We have this argument about a blanket in our house. I think it's unambiguously green and she thinks it's unambiguously blue."
Mineault, also a programmer, was fiddling with new AI-assisted coding tools, so he designed a simple colour discrimination test.
If you navigate to ismy.blue, you'll see the screen populated with a colour and will be prompted to select whether you think it's green or blue. The shades get more similar until the site tells you where on the spectrum you perceive green and blue in comparison with others who have taken the test.
"I added this feature, which shows you the distribution, and that really clicked with people," says Mineault. "'Do we see the same colours?' is a question philosophers and scientists – everyone really – have asked themselves for thousands of years. People's perceptions are ineffable, and it's interesting to think that we have different views."
Apparently, my blue-green boundary is "bluer" than 78% of others, meaning my green is blue to most people. How can that be true?
Our brains are hard-wired to distinguish colours via retinal cells called cones, according to Julie Harris, professor of psychology at the University of St Andrews, who studies human visual processing. But how do we do more complex things like giving them names or recognising them from memory?
"Higher-level processing in terms of our ability to do things like name colours is much less clear," says Harris, and could involve both cognition and prior experience.
[...] Most differences in colour perception are physiological, like colour blindness, which affects one in 10 men and one in 100 women. Others, however, may be connected to aspects of culture or language.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity, popularised in the movie Arrival, suggests that language shapes the way we think, and even how we perceive the world. In the 1930s, Benjamin Lee Whorf argued that the world consisted of "a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions organised ... largely by the linguistic systems of our minds", pointing to, for instance, the Inuits' multiple words for "snow" as an example of differences in cultural perceptions.
Although this theory continues to be hotly debated throughout linguistics, psychology and philosophy, language does inform how we communicate ideas. There's no word for "blue" in ancient Greek, for example, which is why Homer described stormy seas as "wine-dark" in The Odyssey. By contrast, Russian has distinct words for light blue and dark blue. However, recent research suggests a greater vocabulary may only be beneficial for remembering colours and not for perceiving them.
Before you fight online about whether a particular shade is aqua or cyan, it's important to note that ismy.blue's results have limitations. The slightest variation in viewing conditions influences colour perception, which is why vision researchers take such care when designing experiments. Factors like the model of your phone or computer, its age, display settings, ambient light sources, time of day and even which colour is presented first in the test will all play a role in your responses.
Night modes in particular increase the redness of a device's screen, causing blues to appear greener. To see if this was influencing test results, Mineault separated the data into two groups: before or after 6pm. The effect was immediately apparent, especially on devices with built-in night modes.
So what's the point of ismy.blue if it's so variable? In the end, it's just entertainment. But if you'd like results with a little more equivalence, Mineault suggests doing the exercise with others on the same device, so that "everybody's in the same lighting and the same place".
[...] One question remains, though: what colour is the blanket?
"We've taken the test a bunch of times," says Mineault. "As soon as there's a little green in there, I call it green"; his wife sees blue.
The solution? Maybe just buy a new one.
See also:
•Is my blue your blue?
•Color blindness - Wikipedia
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DadaDoofy on Saturday September 21, @04:40PM (9 children)
The test is flawed. I reached point where the color displayed could have been characterized as green or blue, but you don't get that choice. You have to pick one or the other, thus incorrectly registering your perception.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21, @05:56PM
Whoosh!
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21, @07:21PM
You're over-analyzing, trying to put it into your ideas, and you're completely missing the whole point of the test.
Your complaint is exactly what the test is about: the researchers are trying to survey people's perception. Just click what you first see.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Whoever on Saturday September 21, @08:02PM (3 children)
The real flaw is that it assumes that the screen you are looking at has perfect color reproduction.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aafcac on Saturday September 21, @09:49PM
Yes, although modern monitors come with a profile that's pretty good. Yes, there is some variation from monitor to monitor, but the stock profile is pretty good. Certainly good enough that other factors like the lighting in the room are arguably bigger issue than the monitor calibration is.
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Sunday September 22, @02:10AM (1 child)
The boundary shifts dramatically between my screens. One is an LG Oled, the other an HP ZR30 wide gamut 100% adobe gamut screen. The resulting line is far to the left on the LG, near perfectly centered if I retake the test with the HP.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Sunday September 22, @02:54AM
You shouldn't be using weird color spaces for things like this. sRGB is what they're expecting, other profiles will affect the results.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ntc on Saturday September 21, @08:35PM
I had the opposite problem.
I stared at the 2nd color for a long time, unable to make my mind up.
Later choices were much easier, and alternated between blue and green.
I suspect my later choices were primarily based on the color DIFFERENCE.
i.e. If the color became bluer, I saw it as blue. and vice versa.
If I'm right, then there needs to be longer delays between the choices (with the random colored squares).
So I tested my idea.
I run the test again, and after a few clicks, I decided the color was green. Then I stared at something that was VERY green for a few seconds.
When I went back to the test, I now saw it as blue.
(Score: 2) by namefags_are_jerks on Saturday September 21, @11:48PM
As a VIC-20 owner, "Cyan" is in my recognized palette too. I got about 3 tests in before I gave up.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Sunday September 22, @02:41AM
I had the same thought, But I see finer color gradations than most folks.
It says to me:
"Your boundary is at hue 183, bluer than 90% of the population. For you, turquoise is green."
Well, what it calls turquoise is green... and I called some screens blue that were really borderline.
Me: "I don't like any of these choices."
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Saturday September 21, @04:47PM (4 children)
The entire thing just ends up being shades of cyan -- a mix of blue or green. Who can really tell if this is a little more green then blue. The only way I could tell is if I knew the numerical representations of some kind (RGB, CMYK or PANTONE ...). Without this it's just pointless.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday September 21, @04:49PM (2 children)
OK I was supposed to keep clicking. Who the hell can tell if you have CYAN if that is GREEN-CYAN or BLUE-CYAN. But apparently I'm in some kind of spectrum. Or that is where it ended up after clicking 10 times or so.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21, @08:21PM
> greener than 97% of the population.
Greta Thunberg wants to marry you.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RS3 on Sunday September 22, @12:37AM
The test is not to define colors; it's about measuring people's perceptions of color. So much of life is subjective / perception and the researchers are just trying to get a handle on people's opinions.
I also scored high in green (I forget the number). My analysis is: to me blue is a pure color, so anything that's not mostly blue is something else, be it cyan, magenta, whatever.
But some people think of green as a pure color, so any noticeable blueish hue makes it impure and not just green any more.
(Score: 1, Troll) by SomeGuy on Saturday September 21, @05:22PM
But, but, but, it's an "APP"! And using AI!! It's totally new and glorious! All praise AI!
(Also, I guess all display devices somehow display color exactly the same these days, right?).
(Score: 3, Funny) by chucky on Saturday September 21, @05:15PM (2 children)
Ok, so I’m greener than 66% of the population. Can I get my ICE back?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21, @07:11PM (1 child)
We'll allow you 66% of an ICE.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21, @08:02PM
So a Prius it is then?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 22, @12:22AM
Lie on your side for a minute or two. Then close the left eye and look a white piece of paper (or white wall etc). with your right eye. Then close the left eye, open your right eye, and look at the white piece of paper, compare the color of what you see with your different eyes. Next try lie on the other side and do a similar thing.
😉
FWIW lots of monitors don't have the same color calibration nor are even close to. But I'm very sure that people see colors differently, human biology is too messy to be so precise on such stuff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy#Humans [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Sunday September 22, @12:55AM (2 children)
Do people on this site differ from the general population? Maybe we could put it on the next poll.
I'm at "Your boundary is at hue 182, bluer than 87% of the population".
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday September 22, @03:27AM
I just took the test for the (at least) third time and I'm "Your boundary is at hue 199, bluer than 99% of the population. For you, turquoise is green."
Huge observation: for any given turquoise / cyan, on my LCD laptop screen, if I tilt the screen such that I'm looking somewhat downward at the screen- top closer to me, it's much bluer.
And similarly, if I tilt the screen top back, such that I'm looking up at it, it's much much greener.
I'm curious if others have the same effect when changing screen view angle?
I might try to contact the experimenter.
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Sunday September 22, @12:35PM
Your boundary is at hue 172, greener than 66% of the population. For you, turquoise is blue.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Sunday September 22, @05:31AM
The real question is why is there a ".blue" TLD. "Those who like the color blue"--really?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by KritonK on Sunday September 22, @05:38AM (1 child)
This reminds me of the time when we were shown how to draw a flower at school, which we were then asked to color any way we liked. I chose to color it blue, but people kept asking me why I painted the flower green. According to the test, I see turquoise as blue, and that blue flower was actually turquoise!
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday September 22, @01:29PM
The real question is "What color would a bee see?". (Wild) flowers aren't colored to satisfy human vision.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.