Colour vision deficiency, commonly referred to as colour-blindness, is a common congenital disorder that affects the perception of colour. It predominantly affects men (8%) due to the genetics of the disorder but women (0.5%) are also affected. It is mostly a congenital problem - it is the most common human inherited trait - but it can be acquired, for example, through damage to the retina, optic nerve, or higher brain regions. Colour-blindness seldom manifests as the inability to perceive no colour - complete colour-blindness is very rare - but instead results in far fewer colour responses than normal, which means colours that may appear contrasting and different to a person with normal colour vision can appear less so to people with colour vision deficiencies. There is currently no biological cure available for colour-blindness.
The following three examples highlight some of the difficulties experienced by people with CVD:
- comprises coloured text and hyperlink,
- is a graph that utilises a red-yellow-green colour-scale to encode values,
- is a digital colour photograph.
The left column shows the original colour image (as viewed by a normal viewer), the middle column shows the same image as perceived by a person with severe red-green colour vision deficiency, and the right column shows the modified image as perceived by a person with severe red-green colour vision deficiency following the application of our recolouring algorithms.
| Image as perceived by person without CVD | As perceived by a red/green CVD sufferer | As perceived by a CVD person using Huetility |
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In each case, the Huetility modified version contains significantly more detail than the original version when viewed by a CVD viewer (comparing the right column with the middle column):
- the hyperlink is now perceived as different, whereas the person with CVD perceives no difference;
- the maximum and minimum values are perceived as different, whereas the CVD person is unable to make the distinction;
- the CVD viewer is able to easily discern the flowers from the background foliage.
The Huetility software is based on a model of the human vision system and very accurate models of colour vision deficiency; we simulate the users CVD and adapt colours based on their own deficiency.
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