# I'd like to buy someone a pair of Enchroma glasses.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 27, 2018, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018 "2018-09-27T13:40:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 6
### Author:  [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/101 "2019-09-12T19:25:25Z")
Oof, sorry for the long delay. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of exciting updates. I’ve tried the glasses a few times in a few lighting situations hoping for something interesting to say, and the effect just wasn’t very significant. I certainly NOTICED an effect, but it wasn’t really different to me than just…looking through a slightly tinted lens.
At most, I’d say that some greens looked a little more visible and colors in general were a little more “poppy” but the distortion of other colors was equally noticeable. It really didn’t seem to help with the main symptoms of my colorblindness, which is having trouble distinguishing certain desaturated or dark colors. Overall, I found wearing them just slightly unpleasant because the artifical tint was always slightly distracting. All that being said, I COULD imagine them being useful in certain situations, like if I was editing photos and looking for things like purple fringing (a type of common distortion).
I also let my father-in-law try them out during a visit. He has similar deutan issues, but I think a little more severe. His experience wasn’t much different. I think he thought the effect was interesting and he wore them walking around outside for a few minutes, but it similarly wasn’t all that impactful.
Wish I had something more exciting to report. I was optimistic, but I’m ultimately not surprised based on what I know about how colorblindness works. I don’t believe it’s complete BS, since colors definitely do shift and I can believe certain contrasts would be enhanced, but I am pretty skeptical of the “life changing” videos out there.
Anyways, much overdue and I’m happy to pass the glasses on to any further curious parties.
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### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/102 "2019-09-12T19:41:56Z")
Well, it looks like we’re 1 for 3 (or 2 for 4 if you count **Isamu’s co-worker)** on the glasses which is exactly why in the OP I didn’t want them to go to a child. I’ll send a PM to **carnut** and see if he/she is still interested in having his/her brother try them.
I don’t know that there’s reason to be skeptical of the “life changing” videos out there. I think it’s more likely a form of confirmation bias. Presumably, people don’t post videos when the glasses don’t work or the effect is minimal.
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### Author:  [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2019, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/103 "2019-09-12T22:07:59Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#):
>
> I don’t know that there’s reason to be skeptical of the “life changing” videos out there. I think it’s more likely a form of confirmation bias. Presumably, people don’t post videos when the glasses don’t work or the effect is minimal.
Perhaps I’m cynical, but I’ve seen too much astroturfing and too many people willing to playact in hope of going viral.
The reason I’m skeptical is because I DO see an effect; it just isn’t THAT kind of effect. It’s not providing a “new” experience, it’s just adding a little vibrancy to colors you can already see. I don’t really believe anybody would genuinely have the experience of putting them on and immediately feeling overwhelmed by emotion because it just isn’t that dramatic, and the positive effects were really only noticeable after a few minutes.
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### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/104 "2019-09-12T22:17:18Z")
> [@typoink](#):
>
> Perhaps I’m cynical, but I’ve seen too much astroturfing and too many people willing to playact in hope of going viral.
>
> The reason I’m skeptical is because I DO see an effect; it just isn’t THAT kind of effect. It’s not providing a “new” experience, it’s just adding a little vibrancy to colors you can already see. I don’t really believe anybody would genuinely have the experience of putting them on and immediately feeling overwhelmed by emotion because it just isn’t that dramatic, and the positive effects were really only noticeable after a few minutes.
Believe me, I understand skepticism. Your experience sounds a lot like mine when I put them on. (I’m not color blind.) It did seem reminiscent of using a filter.
But this was **Isamu’s** experience and I know without a shadow of a doubt that he wasn’t astroturfing.
> [@](#):
>
> At first I looked at the Ishihara test on my computer screen and didn’t see any difference (because I’m a dumbass – that test should be done on printed paper and in daylight or strong white light not under my orange study light, as I later found. Under daylight I could pass the test just fine while wearing the glasses, so I think they actually do work). Then I looked at the artworks and was … shocked. The two adjectives of the day were intense and varied. Red is about twice as bright as what I normally see and greens have so much more variation in them. Pink and Purple jump out like never before, too. I found them in objects where I had never even noticed them before. All other colors like blue yellow and black white and brown etc. were the same. By the way, I shared the glasses with a work friend who is also red green color deficient during lunchtime and we had exactly the same experience - the flowers (pink/red/purple) are trippy. And greens are just a much bigger spectrum.
>
> End result: If you guys and girls see the world like that then I totally get why people rave about seasonal foliage. I haven’t decided whether I will buy my own pair of glasses. I have some idea of what you all see now, so as long as I can remember that, I think I am fine. And also, I would have to re-learn shopping for groceries if I wore the glasses all the time. I wouldn’t know which reds and greens were good for fruit and veges and meat.
So I’m sure that some of the reactions are real. I just don’t know what percentage. At any rate, I appreciate the courage that you have shown in even being willing to try them. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for the next participant, if there is one.
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### Author:  [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/105 "2019-09-13T17:25:21Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#):
>
> Well, it looks like we’re 1 for 3 (or 2 for 4 if you count **Isamu’s co-worker)** on the glasses which is exactly why in the OP I didn’t want them to go to a child. I’ll send a PM to **carnut** and see if he/she is still interested in having his/her brother try them.
>
> I don’t know that there’s reason to be skeptical of the “life changing” videos out there. I think it’s more likely a form of confirmation bias. Presumably, people don’t post videos when the glasses don’t work or the effect is minimal.
Yes please, still interested for my brother’s sake!
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/106 "2020-09-02T17:13:36Z")
Have the glasses been tried by anyone else?
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### Author:  [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2023, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/107 "2023-12-05T23:06:00Z")
An interesting YouTube video by someone who feels that they are a scam.
[Video here](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppobi8VhWwo)
(And I know I’m bumping an old thread, but this is the one I thought was most-relevant to the topic of Enchroma.)
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2023, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/108 "2023-12-06T00:21:02Z")
Ah, I saw that the other day and commented on that video. I suppose it’s not definitive, but I always suspected there was a little “too good to be true” and “how does that work with eye physiology” for me to believe it. I could see it making colors easier to distinguish, but to make you see colors you couldn’t before – I just didn’t understand how that could work.
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### Author:  [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2023, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/109 "2023-12-06T04:51:18Z")
I, too, couldn’t figure out how any kind of filter would make someone see more colors. And it’s too bad because I was taken in by the “testimonials” tugging at my heart strings.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2023, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/110 "2023-12-06T20:19:48Z")
If a person has red/green colourblindness, it’s definitely possible to find a filter that will make the two colours _different_ from each other - for example if you have (say) a red pepper and a green pepper that happen to look identical to a colourblind person, viewing them through a cyan filter will make the red pepper look darker than the green one, or viewing them through a magenta filter will make the green one look darker.
Filters like this might actually make it possible for a colour blind person to score better, or at least differently, on an Inshihara test, but not because they are perceiving _more colours_
The effect comes at a cost - if you’re looking at the world through a cyan filter, then there will be certain combinations of cyan and white, for example white text on a sky blue background, that look like a solid block of colour.
Ultimately, colourblindness is a compression problem in the first place - X number of colours perceived by a person with perfect vision are perceived as less than X number of colours by a colourblind person.
Adding a filter is adding further compression by restricting the total number of colours of light passing through, and merging more of the colours into a smaller number of pigeonholes. This can be done in a way that creates some surprising and potentially slightly useful results, but at the cost of less colour perception in total and in general - _because that’s what any coloured filter does._
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### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2023, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/111 "2023-12-07T02:46:20Z")
They definitely seemed to have a more pronounced effect on @Isamu than any filter would.
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2023, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/112 "2023-12-07T17:40:20Z")
I think what kept a spark of skepticism alive for me was the primative nature of the device. ‘This one weird trick’ is always attractive but often doesn’t pan out.
There have been (and always will?) more recent developments in light stuff like evermore effective & efficient LEDs, active mirrors, imaging framerates & resolution, nonlinear materials, laser doodads, semiconductor dev stuff, virtual reality displays, AI processing.
However, traditional ‘glass’ optics are, as I understand it, solved and especially as the field pertains to human vision correction. There will be minor improvements in eyeglass materials for weight and scratch resistance, coatings & surface treatments for reflections, fogging and keeping clean and stuff. But the actual light bending and filtering is mostly undergrad level equations.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2023, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-like-to-buy-someone-a-pair-of-enchroma-glasses/822018/113 "2023-12-22T00:24:53Z")
Part 2 came out for those interested:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QQtOv2PlOE)
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