Tuesday, December 30, 2008

How do we perceive differences in color?

The physics answer is that color is only dependent on wavelength frequency. There's a difference between the scientific use of the word 'color'--which could mean one or a range of wavelength frequencies--and that used in every day life. For instance, the sky is 'blue', but a 'blue' filter for a telescope has a specific frequency, which is standardised across the discipline.


The human eye combines hue, saturation, and brightness in order to perceive color.


The time of day/night that you are seeing in also changes your perception of color. The rods and cones that make up our visual sensors are sensitive to different amounts and different colors of light. Chances are your cones will work slightly differently compared to someone else's, which will cause changes in the perception of color.


A few years ago, an online, science themed, web-comic did a color-name survey. This is a very interesting way to test individuals' perceptions of color. The results are visualised courtesy of Luminoso.com.


There are many interesting results from that survey. It was shown that what media you are watching (and how that changes the color), and what gender you are will change the way you perceive (or at least, name) colors.

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