Improving Color Vision with Lenses for the Colorblind
- Posted by Daniel Flück on March 29th, 2008 filed in Tools
Every person suffering from color vision deficiency has the same dream: I would like to see the world as everyone else can and I would like to be able to name colors correctly. Color correcting lenses claim to make this dream come true.
The History of Correcting Color Vision
It is said that already in 1837 a German scientist called Seebeck was writing about the possibility to correct color vision deficiency with some sort of lenses. But only in the twentieth century many people investigated and developed different types of tinted lenses and glasses which should help colorblind people to improve their vision.
Many people thought that you really can correct a color vision deficiency and turn it into normal vision. As of today it is well known, that color blindness is in most cases a genetic defect which can’t be corrected except with not yet existent genetic manipulation.
The System of Lenses Enhancing Color Perception
How does it work? It is actually very simple. You just use a tinted lens in one of your eyes, usually in your non dominant eye, and that’s it. In this case both eyes actually see different colors and because of that the brain can extract some other information out of certain colors. You can also use two different tints in each of your eyes. This depends very much on ones personal impression. But it definitely won’t work if you use the same colored lenses in both eyes.
This works for all types of color blindness (protanopia, deuteranopia, tritanopia) in the whole range of severities, with one exception. If you suffer from a complete color blindness (achromatopsia) there is currently no system which can give you back color vision.
The Things You Should Know about Improving Color Vision
First of all you can’t really improve color vision, you can only let’s say adjust your color sensation. The manufacturers claim that you can pass Ishihara plates tests without any errors when using such lenses. And that might be true. But this doesn’t mean that your overall color perception is enhanced. You will also loose some of your color perception in another area of the color spectrum.
Should Know
Here are some of the main handicaps when you are using tinted lenses to improve your color vision:
- The performance on Ishihara plate tests improves a lot. But in contrary there is no significant improvement in lantern tests and in color arrangement tests.
- Color perception improves in your problem area like red-green but at the expense of an increase in blue-yellow confusion.
- Most people experience difficulties in dim light or at night when wearing color correcting lenses.
- You might experience some distracting effects like lustre, fluorescence, 3-dimensional effects, judgment of distance and motion.
But most important: Don’t wear them for driving! If you come into dim light situations like a tunnel you might have some problems with judgment of distance or motion which isn’t safe for driving.
The Results of a Scientific Study about Color Correcting Lenses
In 2000 a group of four scientists of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, tested the ChromaGen contact lens system trying to find out if they can enhance color perception for colorblind people. Fourteen persons suffering from red-green color blindness were involved to test the efficacy in standard color blindness tests, and to evaluate subjective performance in the “real world” over a 2-week lens-wearing period.
Lens tints are available in seven hues (magenta, pink, violet, yellow, aqua, orange and green), and most tints are available at light, medium and dark densities. Most often the pink lens in its darkest density was felt to enhance color perception at the most. Second ranked was the magenta lens, also in the darkest density.
I already included some of the results of this study in the sections above. To me there are two more results which I would like to pass on to you. This might give you a better feeling, if such color enhancing lenses are something for you or not.
pay the price?
At the end of the two week lens-wearing period the people joining the test were asked whether they would be prepared to pay full cost of the lens, which is around $500 per lens. Only two out of 13 would be willing to meet this cost. One of them was really enthusiastic about them and the other one could use them very well on his job as a casino employee.
wear the lens?
One of the persons even returned the lenses, it was too much bother for him. The others expressed interest in wearing them on an occasional basis, maybe once or twice a week. For some of persons the disadvantages of lens wear just outweighed the benefits of them.
The Vendors of Color Correction Lenses
I suppose there are many different vendors all around the world. The following three are the most established ones:
- ColorMax from Dr. Thomas Azman who developed the ColorCorrection System, a unique system of tests and filters for a systematic approach to color vision correction. (Based in Maryland, USA)
- ColorView spectacle lenses help people with congenital red-green color deficiency to distinguish colors easier and reduce color confusion. (California, USA)
- ChromaGen is a unique product that was developed to help patients who suffer from color deficiency. This product was used in the scientific study cited above. (United Kingdom)
- Colorlite is also a leader in color vision diagnostic and correction. (Hungary)
Some products are available at certain optometrists all around the world.
Unfortunately I think that the dream of seeing colors as a colorblind person doesn’t come true. At least not with products like lenses which enhance color vision. They can get you a better color perception but I think the handicaps outweighed the benefits.
The New York Times also wrote an article about lenses which can enhance color vision at A New Technology That Colors the World (Sort of).
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:32
I am suffering from deuteranope, I have tried many methods to enhance my color vision when I am in college, including using colored lens. But actually I cannot find lens with right color to make me pass all of the Ishihara test(especially some green color related), Maybe it is because I completely lose my green sensor in my eyes.
April 6th, 2008 at 17:58
Daniel
Another excellent article about CVD. There is another company making lenses for CVD which is Colorview. The lense technology is much like Colormax. I have personally tried both Chromagen and Colorview lenses. I did have some improvement when testing them with the Ishihara test. The opthamologist with Colorview had me go outside in daylight to use the lenses and many reds that I normally could not see came into view. I did not purchase the lenses because I was more interested in passing a color vision test and felt even with the lenses I would fail. I work as as a field service engineer on diagnostic imaging equipment and have managed to be successful in that endeavor even though I have weak red colorvision. It would be nice to see colors as normal colorvision people do but unforunately the technology does not exist at this time to allow you do that.
April 6th, 2008 at 18:50
azmole, thank you very much for your comment and your nice words. - I included the vendor Colorview in the vendor list of the article.
April 6th, 2008 at 23:30
Daniel,
I recently purchased the shareware WhatColor that reads the pixel value on a PC monitor and displays the color. Very nice tool I’m asking the developer if it would be possible to write software to run on Palm OS or Windows CE which the Treo cellphone runs on. It would be nice to discreetly take a picture with your cellphone (say of some fruit in the market as in your example)then display the color with WhatColor. I know eyePilot on their website states they are working on this also but personnaly I like the features of WhatColor the best. Again thanks for work in keeping this website running.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:21
I went to Dr. Azman two years ago. I could get lenses to improve my red deficiency, but not the green. The cost then was $2500. I couldn’t justify it then.
I just called to see if there was any new technology. Of course he said yes. He also informed me that the price is now $6500! What a rip off.
May 5th, 2008 at 9:04
hi everybody..
how much does colorview glasses cost??
i couldnt afford if it’s too expensive.
could somebody tell me the exact price for a red-green colorblind like me
May 17th, 2008 at 12:15
Hi,
Is the color correct lenses works for a pilot who suffer partially colorblind?
May 17th, 2008 at 21:10
Hi butawarna
I had an eye exam for the Colorview Lenses about one year ago the price that I was quoted was $500.00 for the lenses plus you needed to buy the frames. Hope that helps.
June 13th, 2008 at 16:15
Although I am somewhat distraught with my deficiency, I would not want a permanent and irreversible treatment. I admit that I would like to be able to see colors like others do. But if the genetic manipulation was available, I would not take it. Maybe other people do not share my feelings on this but, my deficiency is part of my identity. Who I am. Hell, people know me as being color “blind”. The lenses could be neat. Only for a time. A side-note: when looking through a video camera (camcorder) I always thought there was an automatic blue-tint to the screen. To my fascination, I happened to put my other eye to the viewfinder and found it to be black and white shades. No blue. This was years after I started using camcorders. Any explanation? Thanks again.
June 26th, 2008 at 5:41
Hi,
I sent a post a while ago, but I’m not sure you got it. I am lawyer representing a color blind person, who applied for a position as a firefighter and was rejected… even after testing with colored lenses. The hearing will be held in September 2008, and I’m looking for additional information I can use.
You make reference to a study by the University of NSW, but do not say what the results were. Do you have a copy of that study?
Jeff
June 27th, 2008 at 14:10
Jeff, you can find the study at: The ChromaGen contact lens system: colour vision test results and subjective responses. Maybe it would be also interesting to have a look into the material of Arthur Pape who was a pathfinder for colorblind pilots in Australia. - I hope you will be successful at the hearing.
June 28th, 2008 at 13:10
hi i would like to know if is possible to use whatcolor (PC) or colorquest (MAC) in mobile phones whit camera ??
June 29th, 2008 at 17:05
Lamat
I recently purchased a registered copy of WhatColor and asked the developer if it would be possible to have the software run a cellphone (Palm OS or Windows CE). He stated that it would not work. You may also wish to visit EyePilot website the address can be found on this website. They state they are working on a version that would be compatiable with a cellphone but they do not offer it for sale. Perhaps if more people asked about it they would see a finacial benefit to develope the software. I think many colorblind people would be purchase a color aide software if it would work on a cellphone.
July 7th, 2008 at 19:41
Interesting article, Daniel. More or less sums up my experience with both ChromaGen and ColorView. With ChromaGen only one tinted lens is worn, this provides colour contrast but I found it distracting as I was unable to coordinate the contrasting visual data. Although I passed the Ishihara Colour Test with this system, I was still unable to name colours. The ColorView system changed the colour spectrum but at the expense of darkening the visual spectrum overall. This system was more akin to wearing sunglasses than anything else as I still was unable to identify colours confidently and still failed the colour test. I’m afraid the only hope is some kind of gene therapy. Although there must be a considerable demand for colour correction, unfortunately I think research in this field is not a high priority.