How Do Humans Perceive Colors?

Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the perception of colors by humans, exploring how different light combinations are interpreted by the brain. It includes references to visual effects and the functioning of photoreceptors in the human eye.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants share a video that discusses various aspects of color perception, highlighting interesting visual effects.
  • One participant notes the difference between dichromatic red-green light and monochromatic yellow light, suggesting that not all colors in the spectrum can be generated by combining the three primary colors.
  • Another participant questions why dichromatic red-blue light is not perceived as a mix of red and blue, which would typically suggest a green interpretation, and contrasts this with how blue and green combine to form blue-green.
  • A later reply explains that human eyes have three types of photoreceptors for red, green, and blue light, and that the absence of green photoreceptor activation in red-blue light leads to its distinct interpretation.
  • It is mentioned that humans cannot easily distinguish between blue light + green light and blue-green light due to the lack of photoreceptors for wavelengths between blue and green.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express varying viewpoints on how colors are perceived, with no consensus reached on the interpretations of specific color combinations.

Contextual Notes

The discussion does not resolve the complexities of color perception, including the limitations of human photoreceptors and the implications for interpreting color combinations.

DrClaude
Mentor
Messages
8,478
Reaction score
5,697
TL;DR
Very good video on how humans perceive colors.
There are been many threads at PF on the perception of color. I would like to share a good video on the subject, which contains many interesting visual effects.



This is from the Technology Connections channel, which has many videos of interest to our community. I encourage you to browse around.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: hutchphd, OmCheeto, pinball1970 and 1 other person
Biology news on Phys.org
Fascinating stuff.

In particular, I was impressed with the difference between dichromatic red-green light and monochromatic yellow light. I've always supposed that any given colour in the spectrum can be generated by a combination of the three primaries, but this video shows that it is not so.

More: one must wonder why dichromatic red-blue light is not interpreted as simply the middle point of red and blue (which would be somewhere in the green). It works elsewhere: the combination blue and green is perceived as a blue-green.

I guess that's not always true: red and green is not interpreted as a red-green - it is interpreted as yellow.
 
DaveC426913 said:
More: one must wonder why dichromatic red-blue light is not interpreted as simply the middle point of red and blue (which would be somewhere in the green). It works elsewhere: the combination blue and green is perceived as a blue-green.

Remember than human eyes contain three different types of photoreceptors that can detect either red, green or blue light. Dichromatic red-blue light is characterized not only by the activation of the red and blue photoreceptors, but also the absence of activation of green photoreceptors. Because red-blue light does not activate the green photoreceptors, the brain will interpret it as distinct from green.

In contrast, humans have no photoreceptors detecting wavelengths between blue and green, so we cannot easily distinguish between a combination of blue light + green light or blue-green light.
 
DrClaude said:
Summary: Very good video on how humans perceive colors.

There are been many threads at PF on the perception of color. I would like to share a good video on the subject, which contains many interesting visual effects.



This is from the Technology Connections channel, which has many videos of interest to our community. I encourage you to browse around.

This is great thanks!
 

Similar threads

Replies
8
Views
6K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
3K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
6K
  • · Replies 36 ·
2
Replies
36
Views
11K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
4K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
3K
Replies
10
Views
7K
Replies
7
Views
3K
  • · Replies 19 ·
Replies
19
Views
3K
  • · Replies 21 ·
Replies
21
Views
2K