Viewhue

Viewhue offers an experience of how the world appears to individuals with various forms of color vision deficiency.

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This interactive application simulates different types and degrees of color blindness, from protanopia to deuteranopia and tritanopia, among others, creating awareness and empathy for the way approximately 8% of the global population perceives color.

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Viewhue offers an experience of how the world appears to individuals with various forms of color vision deficiency.

This interactive application simulates different types and degrees of color blindness, from protanopia to deuteranopia and tritanopia, among others, creating awareness and empathy for the way approximately 8% of the global population perceives color.

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Color vision variations, commonly known as color blindness, affect how people perceive colors due to differences in retinal photoreceptors. These conditions are relatively common, affecting approximately 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women worldwide.

The Science Behind Color Vision

Standard color vision relies on three types of cone cells in the retina:

• S-cones: Detect blue light (short wavelengths)
• M-cones: Detect green light (medium wavelengths)
• L-cones: Detect red light (long wavelengths)

When these cones function differently, it creates various patterns of color perception.

Common Types of Color Vision Variations

Deuteranomaly (Green-Weak)

The most common type, affecting about 6% of males. M-cones detect light at shifted wavelengths, making greens appear more reddish and creating difficulty distinguishing between certain red and green hues.

Protanomaly (Red-Weak)

Affects approximately 1% of males. L-cones detect light at altered wavelengths, causing reds to appear dimmer and creating challenges differentiating between reds, greens, and sometimes yellows.

Tritanomaly (Blue-Weak)

A rare condition affecting less than 0.01% of people. S-cones function differently, resulting in difficulty distinguishing between blues and greens, and yellows and violets.

Other Color Vision Variations

Dichromacy

More pronounced conditions where one cone type is completely non-functional:

• Deuteranopia: No functioning M-cones
• Protanopia: No functioning L-cones
• Tritanopia: No functioning S-cones

Achromatopsia

A rare condition where individuals have no functioning cone cells, resulting in vision that is primarily in shades of gray, with increased light sensitivity.

Tetrachromacy

A unique variation where some individuals (predominantly females) possess four types of cone cells instead of three, potentially allowing perception of millions more color variations than standard vision.

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