# Have humans seen all colors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 12, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-humans-seen-all-colors/485597 "2009-02-12T21:54:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-humans-seen-all-colors/485597/41 "2009-02-13T22:46:12Z")
> [@dwc1970](#): > > So what are we seeing when we see fluorescent colors? Are they just perceived by our eyes as high intensity colors, as if to be phosphorescent? Fluorescence usually produces light composed of a single wavelength, or of a small handful of wavelengths. Light from an incandescent source or light reflected off an object is usually composed of a wide range of different wavelengths. That’s what gives fluorescent objects their unnaturally vivid colors. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-humans-seen-all-colors/485597/42 "2009-02-14T02:38:29Z")
> [@](#): > > As a point of interest. I’ll reference the Mantis Shrimp. This animal possesses the most complex eyes know to science. Each eye is capable of stereo vision, can discern polarized light, and more. Read half way down the page. I mentioned it two posts earlier. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-humans-seen-all-colors/485597/43 "2009-02-14T03:23:34Z")
If you aim any infrared remote control at a digital camera lens (even a phone camera will work for this) the camera sensor represents the infrared LED output on the camera display screen as a bright white flickering light. Is this approximate to how animals might see infrared? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-humans-seen-all-colors/485597/44 "2009-02-14T03:59:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Is this approximate to how animals might see infrared? Even a normal CCD camera without an IR-blocking filter will pick up an IR LED as bright. In fact, it will pick up a normal incandescent indicator light as MUCH brighter than it appears to the eye, because most of the bulb’s output is in the IR. If there were animals who saw in the IR, that is indeed how they’d see the world. But the only animals I know that “see” in the IR are things like Pit Vipers. They have essentially pinhole camera eyes, with really big pinholes. They sense a pretty big blue, rather than a well-defined image. The snakes use their pit “vision” as a rough heat-seeker, and confirm direction with normal vision. (Although I’ve seen photos of blindfolded vipers accurately strikinhg at a balloon filled with hot water). ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-humans-seen-all-colors/485597/45 "2009-02-14T04:02:52Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I mentioned it two posts earlier. Sorry, didn’t see it. Ha! “See it!” Get it? …_taps mike_… “These are the jokes folks, you can laugh or sit there and do nothing, it’s up to you.” ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-humans-seen-all-colors/485597/46 "2009-02-14T04:41:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > If there were animals who saw in the IR, that is indeed how they’d see the world. But the only animals I know that “see” in the IR are things like Pit Vipers. Well. that guy [who built goggles that explout humans’ residual IR vision](http://amasci.com/amateur/irgoggl.html) reports that it just looks red. I suspect that’s because we don’t have another set of infrared-sensitive receptor cells. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > They have essentially pinhole camera eyes, with really big pinholes. They sense a pretty big blue, That’s ‘blur’, right? > [@CalMeacham](#): > > …rather than a well-defined image. The snakes use their pit “vision” as a rough heat-seeker, and confirm direction with normal vision. (Although I’ve seen photos of blindfolded vipers accurately strikinhg at a balloon filled with hot water). Now there’s an interesting job: snake blindfolder. “How was work today, dear?” “Lousy. I had to do fifteen pit vipers and an anaconda, and one of the pit vipers wasn’t fully tranked. Good thing I was wearing my protective gauntlets, or he would have broken the skin. I think I’ll apply for that venom-collecting job. At lest there everyone knows what to expect…” ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-humans-seen-all-colors/485597/47 "2009-02-14T05:59:10Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Now there’s an interesting job: snake blindfolder. Sounds like a hero from a pulp novel. **“Snake Blindfolder, vs. the Platinum Horde of Alaskania!”** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-humans-seen-all-colors/485597.md?page=2)