People with normal vision can usually perceive millions of color shades. There are, however, about 300 million people around the world, close to 8% of men and 0.5% of women that have Color Vision Deficiency (CVD).
People that suffer from CVD see only a few thousand color shades. Color blindness is a particularly extreme form of CVD. Such people may see only a few hundred color shades. Unsurprisingly, color blind people see the world differently from people with normal vision. One instance of this that is particularly relevant to the display industry is that, when people with CVD watch TV, they see images that can be a very different from those intended by the content creators. Samsung hopes to address this issue in conjunction with Colorlite Ltd. (Budapest, Hungary) utilizing an app called #SeeColors.
A simple explanation of human vision might be along these lines. The eye can simultaneously detect three primary colors: red, green and blue. All other colors are obtained by mixing of these three primary colors. To those persons with CVD, one or more of the primary colors is not properly detected. The condition is called deutan if it is the person’s green detectors that malfunction, protan if red is affected and tritan if blue is affected. People who are totally color blind see only shades of grey.
The #SeeColors application tests the user’s color vision using a process that the company calls a “CVTest.” The test determines the type and severity of the deficiency in the user’s vision. The app then recalibrates the balance in the RGB emission spectra of the display based on the results of the user’s CVTests. From the standpoint of the user with CVD, the rebalanced image is perceived as closer to that intended by the content creator.
A video at the end of this article explains and illustrates the #SeeColors app.
According to Samsung, the #SeeColors app works on smartphones and Tizen-based TVs. (Tizen is Samsung’s TV OS.) The app is preinstalled in the company’s 2016 SUHD TV product line. The mobile version of the app is currently available only in Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary through the Galaxy App Store and Google Play. The app can be installed on the Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+, S7 and S7 edge. It is not clear at this time whether Samsung plans to release the app for other phone models or in other countries.
Subscribers to Meko publications might find it interesting to note that there are at least three other companies that are developing software to adjust the colors in display images for purposes similar to but not exactly the same as that implemented by Colorlite, that we have reported on in recent years.
- Eizo Corp. (Ishikawa, Japan) has developed so-called UniColor Pro software. This software simulates color blindness when used with select Eizo LCD monitors. It allows designers to see how their printed materials, signs, web contents, videos and the like will appear to people that have CVD.
- The Perceptual Display Platform is an embedded software technology developed by IRYStec Software Inc. (Montreal, Canada). The system replicates how the human eye sees and adapts the display imagery to specific viewer attributes. Such attributes include user age, gender, ethnicity, color and contrast perception. The app is claimed to “significantly improve readability across all ambient light conditions while reducing eyestrain and improving power consumption.” IRYStec’s technology is available to OEM display device manufacturers. (Irystec Aims to Optimise Displays to People)
- Spectral Edge (Cambridge, UK) has a technology for service providers that can be used in STBs to process TV to modify it in similar concept to the #SeeColors approach. -Arthur Berman
