Hi Julian,
I don't have anomalous trichromacy and have never tried these glasses,
so I can't be of any help.
What I can say though is human color perception is extremely complex
and still not completely understood.
Since many people are familiar with how a combination of RGB detectors
in a digital camera work and they have learnt of L, M & S cone receptors
in the eye, they often mistakenly believe that the way humans perceive
color is somewhat analogous to how digital cameras, TV monitors and
colour film works.
We know from many different types of experiments that the way humans
process and perceive different colors is very different to how these
man-made technologies work.
If human color perception was based on a simple RGB model like that in
a digital camera, then there are a series of wonderful experiments that
provide counterintuitive results and break that model.
For example, consider the work of Edwin Land, of Polaroid fame, and John
McCann in the 60's and 70's. Two of the great pioneers of modern
colour theory.
In one experiment they found if you illuminated a scene with
a narrow band source at 550nm and at a level just enough to trigger
the rods but not the cones, and you also illuminated the same scene
with a narrow band source at 656nm at a level enough to stimulate the
long wavelength cones but not the middle wave length cones, then
test subjects would perceive the scene with a remarkable range of
color including reds, yellows, browns, blue-greens, grays and blacks.
In classical color theory as many of us were taught in science class at
school, the rods aren't supposed to be involved in color perception at all.
They are what amateur astronomers do most of their seeing in low light conditions with.
The same classical theory would tell us that at 656nm, with only the
long wave length cones firing, the scene would be predominantly in
shades of red.
So how do humans manage to perceive this surprisingly large range
of colors under such limited stimulus? The answer is complex and we
do know a large part of it takes place at the back of the head in the
visual cortex. It appears that we do operations as complex as fast
fourier transforms in that part of the brain.
The misconceptions of how we perceive colour is exacerbated by when
some refer to the cones as red, blue and green receptors.
Since modern color perception theory is more advanced than the simple
RGB model many of us were taught in school, the professional literature
will more often refer to them a long (L), medium or middle (M) and short
(S) wavelength receptors. This then decouples the notion of some
particular range of color being directly associated with one type
of receptor.
So when you ask does this particular eye glass product work, or is it just snake oil, I don't know.
What I do know is that there is sufficient scope in the complexities
of human color perception borne out various experiments that make
nonsense of what many of us were taught in school that I would
not dismiss the product without a deeper investigation.
It would be great if you could try a pair on.
Good luck!
Best Regards
Gary
)
