First it was the “dress”, then it was the sneakers, now there is a debate about the color blue.
If you’ve ever argued with a friend about whether something is blue or green, you’re not alone.
A new test called “Is my blue your blue?” it shows how different – or similar – your color perceptions are compared to everyone else’s.
The experiment was created by neuroscientist and AI researcher Dr. Patrick Mineault – and it all started with an argument over a blanket.
“I am a visual neuroscientist and my wife, Dr. Marisse Masis-Solano, is an ophthalmologist,” Mineault told The Guardian. “We have this argument about a blanket in our house. I think it’s definitely green and she thinks it’s definitely blue.”
The researcher and programmer was working on new AI-assisted coding tools and designed a color perception test.
The ismy.blue website will fill an entire screen with a color and ask the user if it is green or blue. The colors on the screen will gradually become more similar until the page finishes where you lie on the spectrum.
“Colors are often represented in the HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) color space,” Mineault explained to the Daily Mail. “Hue 120 is green, and hue 240 is blue. The test focuses on blue-green shades between 150 and 210.
However, if you see a color that you want to identify as somewhere in between, like turquoise, you have to choose whether the color is blue or green for you.
“In early experiments, we found that people’s responses cluster around 175, which happens to be the same color as HTML called turquoise,” Mineault said.
“This is interesting because the nominal boundary between blue and green is 180, the color HTML calls cyan. This means that most people’s boundaries have shifted towards saying that cyan is blue.”
A user’s final threshold distribution is based on other people who have also taken the test, so they can be compared to the general population.
“I added this feature, which shows you distribution, and that really clicked with people,” Mineault explained. “So we see the same colors?” it’s a question philosophers and scientists—everyone really—have been asking themselves for thousands of years. People’s perceptions are indescribable and it’s interesting to think that we have different views.”
The website launched in August and has already seen more than 1.5 million hits in about a month.
“I’m not too surprised that it struck a chord because people want to understand how others see the world,” Mineault said.
The neuroscientist explained that color perception in general is “tricky to measure.”
“Vision scientists use specialized equipment calibrated for color perception. “Graphic designers use physical color cards, such as those made by Pantone, so they can communicate colors unambiguously,” he said.
Don’t worry if your results are very different from the rest of the population, there is nothing wrong with your vision.
“Getting weirder results doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with your vision,” Mineault explained. “It could mean that you have a peculiar way of naming colors, or that your monitor and lighting are unusual.”
There are many external factors that can affect your perception, such as the model of your phone or computer, how old the device is, display settings, night time, ambient light sources, time of day, and which color appears first. .
As for the color of the blanket, the decision is still out.
“We’ve done the test many times,” Mineault shared. “As soon as there’s a little green there, I call it green” – but his wife still sees blue.
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Image Source : nypost.com