Comments on: Are You a Tetrachromat?

By: Jessica Troisi

Jessica Troisi — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:32:01 +0000

You are all STILL getting fooled by this shit? I know you all want to be “special” and “different”, but you’re not. No RGB monitor can be used for a tetrachromacy test. You wanna stand out and show the world how awesome you are? LEARN BIOLOGY…AND COLOR THEORY.

By: Martha

Martha — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:20:41 +0000

I see B T and maybe S?

By: Fade

Fade — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:45:58 +0000

Black, grey, Blue

By: Matthew Slyman

Matthew Slyman — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:58:53 +0000

As pointed out by others…

IN THEORY: The colour-space of ANY RGB-based monitor will make it impossible for this test to work. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a cheap one or an expensive one. If you scanned the test-cards using a trichromatic scanner or camera, or encoded the images using a trichromatic compression algorithm, or display the images using a trichromatic screen; any of these things (most particularly the latter, since one might conceivably design a tetrachromatic screen that attempts to decode RGB signals and re-encode them as RGBX); and you’re finished—your test won’t work.

Personally, if I was designing a test for tetrochromacity and expecting it to work, I’d print using inks that are based only on one colour chemical (not based on a blend of colours). You’d probably need specially made printer cartridges in a photo printer system (the sort that uses 6-8 primary inks), controlled by custom printer-driver software that doesn’t try to reinterpret the colour space in terms of RGB. Get ready to get your hands dirty with some real low-level colour chemistry, software engineering etc.

IN PRACTICE: I’m pretty convinced by Mea’s first comment. Proof of the theory, if you like.

TO ANYONE WHO IS SEEING THE LETTERS VAGUELY IN THE CIRCLES: Sorry but anyone who is subtly “seeing” something other than flat colour is probably just imagining it. After staring at the circles for a while, I began to see very subtle shapes myself… Curiously, the shapes depended on what I believed I saw… So in other words, I saw in a very subtle way, what I wanted to see. If you look hard enough, you can see patterns in the arrangements of the little circles… I think that’s what does it.

By: Helmut Brunner

Helmut Brunner — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 04:07:34 +0000

I see figures in the red and orange, not in the green.

By: Lamouroux

Lamouroux — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:14:47 +0000

Hello,

Me too … I read “S O S”. On the other hand I know I’m tetrachromats …

Evelyna

By: Bouchard

Bouchard — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:41:46 +0000

Your test: 8 – W – nothing (this is normal for me on the yellow green).

Hello,

My name is Celia-Violaine Bouchard, I am a 54 year old woman, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics.

I’m deuteranopia four-color (purple, red, orange, blue), I do not see the yellow but two additional pigments (purple – orange).

I am doing private research on color and I also work to develop a battery of tests for the four-color.

I’m interested in talking with you.

Sincerely

Celia-Violaine Bouchard

By: KFLINT

KFLINT — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:26:57 +0000

I see the numbers in the green and orange clearly but have to strain to make out the red.

By: anonymous_nerd

anonymous_nerd — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 05:01:50 +0000

I’m trempted to try to search these for patterns to find what characters they might be… I can’t tell by color difference though.

By: Sean

Sean — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:09:52 +0000

I’ve analysed this picture and I can tell you it doesn’t work as a test.

The JPEG artifacts are a small problem (but easily avoided with PNGs); the fact that it’s stored (and normally also displayed) as red, green and blue channels is a massive one.

No amount of expanding the hues or sampling the different spots can reveal any useful information. This test needs to be printed with a very particular set of inks.