(Note: this is a re-post of a thread I started recently on Whirlpool, but I figured I might get some informed comment here, given that we all have an interest in optics.
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I'm severely Red-Green Colour Blind (technically, Deuteranomaly). I'm wondering whether anyone has first-hand experience with the EnChroma glasses which are claimed to boost colour perception for many people who suffer from colour blindness. (See
http://enchroma.com/ )
There does seem to be some real science behind these glasses, which differentiates them from other tinted sunglasses which have been promoted as "cures" for colour blindness – e.g. see:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innova...954456/?no-ist
The theory is that for people with normal vision, the Red receptors in the eye respond strongly to red, but only moderately to red-green colours, while the Green receptors respond strongly to green, but only moderately to red-green colours. For people with Red-Green colour blindness (which is my problem), the red and green receptors in the eye overlap in their colour reception, and both respond strongly to similar wavelengths in the red-green range, so they don't differentiate between red and green as well as a normal eye.
The EnChroma lenses effectively transmit red and green, but largely block the intermediate red-green colours, so the red receptors will be triggered strongly by red but not by red-green (which are blocked by the lenses), while the green receptors will be triggered by green but not red-green.
Where these glasses differ from other products that I have seen before is that these use narrow band-pass "notch" filters to cut out a very tightly defined band of red-green, whereas the more common type use pigmented dye filters, which filter out a wider and less clearly defined band of colours. (They also have a "notch" for blue-green, which could be beneficial for some forms of colour-blindness, but is probably not so important for me.)
http://enchroma.com/technology/
(Hopefully that differentiation will make some sense to some IIS participants.)
I realise there are no guarantees for any individual, but by their accounts (and a bit of Googling), it seems there is a good chance that I would gain significant benefit from wearing them – but there is also a chance that I would get little or no benefit.
Or am I just wanting to believe another snake-oil salesman?
I'd love to hear from anyone who has actually tried them.