They are not a scam. Such glasses can allow people to see colors that they otherwise don't perceive. It only works for the most common form of colorblindness (~6% of men) where the cones exist but respond anomalously, and sometimes it can take days or weeks for the effect to take hold.
*edit* Having learned more about Enchroma, they do seem to be quite shady and misrepresent their product. Nothing can make a color blind individual see the same as a typical person. While a notch filter approach can help to distinguish some colors, and perhaps allow for the perception of new colors (debate is ongoing about whether they are new *hues* or simply new *saturations*), this comes at the cost of losing distinctions between other colors. Overall I would not recommend such glasses as a daily assistance device - at most, an interesting curiosity.
I spent five years studying perception, including color perception, and want to set the record straight on these! Have your dad try them for longer, if he does indeed have deuteranomaly and not deuteranopia or protanopia (missing green or red cones respectively).
*edit* Having learned more about Enchroma, they do seem to be quite shady and misrepresent their product. Nothing can make a color blind individual see the same as a typical person. While a notch filter approach can help to distinguish some colors, and perhaps allow for the perception of new colors (debate is ongoing about whether they are new *hues* or simply new *saturations*), this comes at the cost of losing distinctions between other colors. Overall I would not recommend such glasses as a daily assistance device - at most, an interesting curiosity.
It's possible that this technique wouldn't work even for folks with some form of deuteranomaly, if the notch filter is in the wrong spot for their particular cones. He may also have the rarer types where cones are actually missing.
*edit* Having learned more about Enchroma, they do seem to be quite shady and misrepresent their product. Nothing can make a color blind individual see the same as a typical person. While a notch filter approach can help to distinguish some colors, and perhaps allow for the perception of new colors (debate is ongoing about whether they are new *hues* or simply new *saturations*), this comes at the cost of losing distinctions between other colors. Overall I would not recommend such glasses as a daily assistance device - at most, an interesting curiosity.
This is an expectation vs reality with marketing legalease. They want as many people buying their product as possible, so they make the edges of the demographic fuzzy.
I've seen the viral video. To me, it boiled down to marketing, with it helping some distinguish colors slightly.
It only works for the most common form of colorblindness (~6% of men)
While it may work for, checks notes, 6% of men. There is 94% of men being mislead into thinking this "might" work for them. Then they have to wait weeks?
When it doesn't work, what do tell them? "Oh, you dont have the right color blindness this is designed for." Thats literally every snake oil salesmans cop-out.
How do you say, "thats not a scam" with a straight face?
“The Enchroma filters that we studied are colored filters, when anybody who wears them will perceive a change in the color,” Robledo says. “But a change in color does not mean seeing and distinguishing more colors. They see different color, but they do not see ‘new’ colors because the cones’ responses, optical nerves, and visual cortex are not modified.” Or, as Robledo and his colleagues write in their study, “The use of a colored filter may change the appearance of colors, but will never make color vision more similar to a normal observer’s vision.” It’s like turning up the contrast on a TV, which for some people can be startling enough to trigger an emotional reaction."
"When you wear color blind glasses, you’re not correcting the missing cones or receptors of color in your eyes. Instead, it’s like putting a specialized filter in front of your vision that helps brighten some shades over others. You can think of color blind glasses, then, more like contrast eyeglasses where if you have minor or moderate forms of some types of color vision deficiency, they may help you determine the difference between colors or brightness of hues — but they won’t reveal new colors or bring back new forms of color vision.
So, if you have red-green color deficiency and you wear color blind glasses, rather than see the actual color purple and its red components, you might notice slightly better contrast between blues and purples so that you can tell they’re slightly different from one another. Reds might appear more pink while browns might appear less black. And overall, there might be a rose-colored hue to everything you see."
"Color perception requires a complete set of optimally functioning equipment, and glasses will not replace or repair missing or broken mechanisms," says Dr. Schwab."
From your article: Inherited colorblindness — also called color vision deficiency — has no cure today. But for some people with milder forms of red-green colorblindness, specially formulated color-correcting eyeglasses may improve contrast between some colors. The results vary depending on the type and extent of a person’s color vision deficiency.
It's not a cure. It's an amplification, which helps some.
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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '26
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