Are You a Tetrachromat?
June 8th, 2008 by timbotron
If all you see are three circles filled with dots of the same color, you are normal. If you see something different (such as different colored letters inside each circle) - immediately contact me in the comment section below.
You may be a tetrachromat: very rare and super human.
A tetrachromat is sort of like being a super taster of color vision. To date, only two or three people have been identified as potential tetrachromats.
You might be one.
In simple terms, here’s how normal color vision works:
We all have three types of color photoreceptive cells in the back of our eyes (the retina) - which are often called the red, green, and blue “cones.” We are trichromats. Each of these ‘flavors’ of cone is sensitive to a particular range of colors of the spectrum. And usually when we perceive a color, it is the result of a combination of signals from more than one flavor of cone. For example, seeing “orange” is the result of a moderate signal from a green cone and a stronger signal from a red cone. And we are able to distinguish the range of orange hues from each other by the different strengths of green and red cone signals that each orange hue generates (darker orange would have a stronger red signal, etc).
What would happen if you had a fourth cone, an extra color photoreceptor?
If you are a tetrachromat, the most likely scenario is that you have a mutant form of the red cone while also having normal form of the red cone - two types of red cones that are sensitive to slightly different ranges of the red end of the color spectrum. You would not be able to see extra colors the rest of us can’t (sadly, no ultraviolet vision, etc.), but you would be able to make distinctions between very similar colors that the rest of us cannot. Two samples that would look like the same color of red to me would look like dramatically different reds to a tetrachromat.
The most likely candidate for being a tetrachromat:
• You are a woman
• You have men with red/green colorblindness in your family.
• In particular, you have a son or father with red/green colorblindness.
If you can see more than colored circles in the three tests above, drop me a line in the comment section below.
June 9th, 2008 at 3:57 am
dammit..
there must be some other way too for me to proof the rest of world about my rarity and superioty among humans.
June 10th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Huh. Does this tetrachromacy test work on an RGB monitor? Also, I’d think that all bets are off after the test has been compressed to a jpeg. I think one of the jpeg compression algorithm’s features is to simplify photos by removing colors we can’t differentiate. Interesting info though.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Jerry,
Good point.
I accounted for the jpeg compression. The color microdifferences still exist after jpeg compression, I checked.
However, I don’t know if certain older monitors or ones with significant color limitations will allow these graphics to work properly - they may not properly portray the minute color differences.
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
It could be my imagination but after looking at it closely my brain (or eyes?) picked out a letter in each one, together spelling a word. I don’t know if I should say it….then everyone might see it! If there really are letters in there, maybe you could let me know.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:15 am
2 or 3, 3, 8
June 29th, 2008 at 8:47 am
I see characters in the red and orange circles but not in the green.
July 10th, 2008 at 10:12 am
The three circles all have the same dual shades per color
i think i am a tetrachromat: can see different shades of red, green & orange per circle
mmmz wonder what to do with my super-vision
July 29th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
It seems like I see and E in the green circle..an O in the second and a D in the third..
I wonder…It took me a while to figure out the one in the yellow though.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:46 am
I seem to see a few things…..I’m not going to say anything, because it may inspire frauds to say they saw what I might say….Then again, I may not truly be one….With everyone here doing so, it’s unlikely…..Either way, you said to post if we saw anything, and so it shall be.
July 30th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Yes, I believe I am slightly a tetrachromat. I can see the letters inside the circles, they’re all a shade lighter than the the circles.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
The only thing i can see is what looks like the letter “T” in the orange circle.
September 27th, 2008 at 4:24 am
My first thought was the same as Jerry’s. In RGB a color is represented by thee values, each representing the intensity of one of the primary colors corresponding to our eyes’ receptors. A fourth primary color would completely disappear in this algorithm. What might happen, is that for some people the ratio in sensitivity for the three colors is a bit different, and two certain colors represented by different RGB values may look the same to one person, but different to the other. Interesting subject, but I don’t think t you can spot tetrachromats this way. Just my opinion, might be wrong.
October 27th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Is there a B or an 8 in the red field?