Abstract
To see color, the human visual system combines the response of three types of cone cells in the retina—a compressive process that discards a significant amount of spectral information. Here, we present designs based on thin-film optical filters with the goal of enhancing human color vision by breaking its inherent binocular redundancy, providing different spectral content to each eye. We fabricated a set of optical filters that “splits” the response of the short-wavelength cone between the two eyes in individuals with typical trichromatic vision, simulating the presence of approximately four distinct cone types. Such an increase in the number of effective cone types can reduce the prevalence of metamers—pairs of distinct spectra that resolve to the same tristimulus values. This technique may result in an enhancement of spectral perception, with applications ranging from camouflage detection and anti-counterfeiting to new types of artwork and data visualization.
Highlights
In the typical human eye, the three cone types—labeled “S” for short wavelengths, “M” for medium, and “L” for long—are sensitive primarily to light with wavelengths in the 390–530 nm, 400–670 nm, and 400–700 nm bands, respectively[1,2,3,4]
We explore designs based on thin-film optical filters that may simulate tetrachromatic color vision in typical trichromatic humans by increasing the number of effective cone types in the visual system comprising the two eyes and a passive optical device
We focused on a design that splits the response of the S cone, transforming the trichromatic visual system into one that simulates tetrachromatic vision
Summary
In the typical human eye, the three cone types—labeled “S” for short wavelengths, “M” for medium, and “L” for long—are sensitive primarily to light with wavelengths in the 390–530 nm, 400–670 nm, and 400–700 nm bands, respectively[1,2,3,4]. The signal from the cones is relayed though retinal ganglion cells, to the optic nerve, and the brain, where it is further processed to produce a color sensation[5,6] This process can be understood as a type of lossy compression from an N-dimensional spectrum, where N is the number of wavelength bins necessary to sufficiently approximate a continuous spectrum, into a color, which is a three-dimensional object (Fig. 1). We explore designs based on thin-film optical filters that may simulate tetrachromatic (and possibly higher-dimensional) color vision in typical trichromatic humans by increasing the number of effective cone types in the visual system comprising the two eyes and a passive optical device.
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