Category Archives: news

SimCity for the Colour Blind

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A while ago I posted about whether colour blindness was something that designers should take more seriously. After all, about 8% of all the men in the world are colour blind. Of course, this does not mean that they cannot see colour (the term, colour blindness is a bit of a misnomer) but it does mean that they have difficulty discriminating between colours that the rest of us can easily tell apart. In my original post I was referring to the computer game, Call of Duty, and whether the gameplay could be reduced for colour blind players who may have difficulty telling the various colour tags apart that appear on the screen.

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So it was quite interesting that I just came across news that the developers of SimCity have added three special colour filters that make adjustments to the colours on screen so that colour blind players can better discriminate. A great idea – but about time!!

new colour blogs

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Readers may be interested in a new colour-related blog by the SDC’s Chief Executive Graham Clayton. The SDC – the Society of Dyers and Colourists – is the world’s leading independent educational charity dedicated to advancing the science and technology of colour worldwide. It is a professional, chartered Society and becoming a member gives access to SDC’s professional coloration qualifications. I have been a member since about 1982 and I am a Chartered Colourist and a Fellow of the SDC.

I also recently came across another colour blog called chromatic notes. It’s not clear from the web site who runs this blog but there is a great deal of technical information there.

AIC2013

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The 12th International Congress of the International Colour Association (AIC) is taking place in July next year in the UK. The deadline for submitting abstracts is 17th December 2012 so there is not much time. Please visit http://aic2013.org/ for further information about how to submit abstracts and about how to get involved generally. The Congress will be held in Gateshead which is on the opposite side of the river to Newcastle and will take place in the iconic Sage conference centre. Attending AIC is a great way to meet other people who share your interest in colour.

We all live in a turquoise submarine

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Apparently this week the Iranian navy revealed their latest submarine, resplendent in bright turquoise paint. Why would the navy use this colour since I would think it could make it easy to spot? Could they have thought that it would blend in with the sea and be hard to spot? Surely not.
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Race for colour

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The films were made by a young British photographer and inventor called Edward Turner, a pioneer who can now lay claim to being the father of moving colour film, well before the pioneers of Technicolor.

The footage will be shown to the public from 13 September at the museum in Bradford. And a BBC documentary, The Race for Colour, will be broadcast on 17 September in the Yorkshire and south-east regions on BBC1. I will feature in the film for a minute or two. Exciting.

For further details see the story in the Guardian.

on-line test for colour blindness

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Quite a lot of people are colour blind and have poor colour discrimination. There are tests that can be carried out and these include the Ishihara test (which is a screening test that I certainly remember from School) and the Munsell 100-hue test (where people have to arrange a number of coloured discs in order). These tests need to be performed whilst being viewed in daylight. There are online tests but these are less reliable – partly because the viewing conditions vary such a lot. I recently came across a new online test provide by X-rite. It seems to be based on the 100-hue test (or, at least, something similar) and I can see how it could work, despite being an on-line test). I just had a go. It gave me a score of 34 and suggested that for my age group (and gender) the best score was 0 (perfect colour acuity) and the worst was 99 (low colour acuity). Hmmmmmmmmm. I have a version of the 100-hue test and I can perform it perfectly. My real score should be 0. I have perfect colour discrimination. So, much as I like the X-rite test, I have not changed my opinion that on-line tests like these should be used for fun and should be understood to not provide an accurate assessment of your colour vision. On the other hand, it could just be bitter because I only scored 34. 🙁

jaws

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“Wearing a light blue wetsuit that matches the colour of the sea will make you less likely to become the victim of a shark attack, according to researchers.
Sharks are completely colour blind and only see things clearly if they are mostly light or dark, scientists have claimed.”according to the Daily Mail.

This does not make a lot of sense – if sharks are colour blind then it wouldn’t matter what colour you wear. But later in the article the point is put better by Professor Nathan Hart, from the University of Western Australia: ‘It’s the high contrast against the water rather than the colour itself which is probably attractive to sharks. So you should wear perhaps more muted colours or colours that match the background in the water better.’

Apparently sharks really are monochromats – so colour blind in the popular understanding of the word – and so it’s really a case of matching the yoru swim suit with the lightness or brightness of the surrounding water. Don’t wear a very bright or a very dark swim suit, in short. Maybe this can lead to better designed swimwear!