Thread: A new color....

Some women are tetrachromatic (unlike the rest of us, who are trichromatic). Apparently, this only gives them more depth to existing colors.

I bed if you tried, you could see in a version of infrared. Sure, it might translate into the visible spectrum (just like when we use an infrared reader machine), but I bet its heat-seeing qualities would remain intact.

Originally Posted by Xibran123

I heard that our eyes only see a small spectrum of colors....So, what is it when we see all the spectrums?....could that be possible?

I guess your are talking about infrared and ultraviolet light, stuff like that. I guess you could "see" them, or at least the interpretation you have of what it would look like. You could see everything in violet or something, i doubt your brain could really recreate a color its not made to perceive from the start. Im going to try it , its a great idea for an experiment.

Why would it be only more depth to existing colors? I'd personally think it would mean something like a color on the spectrum and its normal equiv in RGB look different.. how do you do that and still only have "more depth in existing colors"?

Certain animals can see infrared and ultraviolet light. Snakes can see infrared and I believe that dogs can see a little bit of ultraviolet.

If you could see everything then the world would be very very bright

Originally Posted by Sgeo

Why would it be only more depth to existing colors? I'd personally think it would mean something like a color on the spectrum and its normal equiv in RGB look different.. how do you do that and still only have "more depth in existing colors"?

RGB can't show all of the colours in the spectrum without having negative R values. The standard is the XYZ colour spectrum.

The XYZ system can produce every colour possible. Light waves are two dimensional.

Did you see other colours in a dream or something? If not I'm going to move this to the lounge.

I guess my point is that you'd need 4 dimensions to represent the colors that a tetrachromatic person can see, but only 3 for trichromatic persons, so I don't think you can just map tetrachromatic colors to trichromatic colors..

First off, it is impossible to see "new" colors in a dream. See O'nus's post in the tutorial section, or do a search. I remember making a couple long posts about this a couple years ago.

Secondly, if you could see other forms of electromagnetic radiation, it would NOT necessarily manifest itself in the visible radiation part of the spectrum. It might have a "color" to it, but it would most likely have a unique attribute. It seems people seem to think it would simply look like a color because that is all we can comprehend, and when we take pictures that can detect other forms of electromagnetic radiation, we see it manifested in wavelengths we can see. It is impossible for our minds to comprehend what another form of electromagnetic radiation wold actually look like, simply because we have never seen it before. It is the same way with imagining a "new" color. It is absolutely impossible to imagine a "new" color in our brain. Perhaps another form of EMR would be a color, but it would be a color we've never seen before. We cannot comprehend what it would look like though.

I don't think the Lounge is the proper place for this thread.

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how three numbers can describe every color for a person who sees 4 primary colors..

in case you have some mutant-human-being who is able to see all the color spectrum (meaning he/she has the necessary neuron-photo-sensors in his/her eyes) it would be impossible for the brain to filter all that into a clear and use-full image ... cause u have all sorts of frequencies around you ...

As I said, it it impossible comprehend how it would actually look. You have no idea what it would actually "look like" as we as human beings have never seen the EMR itself before. If everybody was deaf and somehow someone brought up the idea of detecting a small portion of EMR (that we call white light), someone like you might say "but it would be impossible for our brain to filter all of the frequencies into a usable image."

RGB is a useful model precisely because the eye/brain actually has red, green, and blue filtration. Color-blind people are missing one or two of these, which is why there are different specific types of color-blindness.

But beyond that, RGB theoretically can represent the entire light spectrum within its lower and upper frequency/wavelength bounds. Our visual processing uses this model because it works.

Having four primary color filters would likely not add any "new" colors, but only break up existing colors in different ways. If you look at printing processes, they use 3, 4, 5 and even 6 different primary ink colors to create all available colors. But going to six doesn't allow you any "new" colors for the eye... it may simply be better at representing certain shades available with pigment on paper.

Wow, so much science behind just one simple concept. well it wasnt really a simple concept. haha. well thanks for the explanation(s). it woludve been fun to have a lucid dream and try to concive a new color.

I think this mixes up qualia and the electromagnetic spectrum a little too much.

From the angle of the basic science, sure, it is possible to see more of the electromagnetic spectrum; some organisms do see a bit more. Seeing all the electromagnetic spectrum though... well that wouldn't really work. You realise that visible light is the part of the spectrum with a wavelength of only 400 to 700nm? There are many other types of wavelengths, such as radio waves, which can be in the range of kilometers.

Regarding qualia though, which is what I think this thread is really about...

Well it's interesting. I think potentially you can be introduced to new qualia, yes. Our brain makes qualia out of distinct experiences. If somebody was locked in a blue room for most of their life and then let out, I don't think they'd see the world in blue.