• tyrant@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    1 day ago

    I read through the article and followed the links and it still isn’t clear to me exactly how much, if any color they can see.

    Achromatopsia, also known as rod monochromacy, is a medical syndrome that exhibits symptoms relating to five conditions, most notably monochromacy.

    • go $fsck yourself@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 day ago

      Well, it states “total color blindness” so, effectively none.

      My point is that when you have “total color blindness” it simply means you cannot effectively discern the difference of of color. That does not mean “black and white.”

      For example, everyone has a blind spot in their eye where the optic nerve passes through the retina. This area has no photoreceptor cells, so there is a spot in each eye that cannot see. When you look through one eye and close the other, do you see a black void spot? Is it a blank white area? No. It’s just… nothing.

      • oneiros
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 day ago

        Are you thinking of cerebral achromatopsia, rather than congenital achromatopsia? As far as I can tell, rod monochromats really do see in grayscale.

        • go $fsck yourself@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          1 day ago

          No. The article states “total absence of working cones in their eye retinas, leaving them with only rods”.

          I’m trying to say that not being able to see color does not mean black and white or grayscale, it means the brain does not decipher color hue.

          My example of the blind spot was to outline that a lack of receptors does not mean black, white, grey, whatever. It means a lack of signals to the brain to process anything. In the case of lacking cones, it means an inability to process color. When it’s described as “grayscale” that’s to help people understand a concept that is difficult for some people to grasp.

          Think of it this way. Black is like 0, White is like 1, and Grayscale would be a float (decimal) between 0 and 1, while Colorblind is like NULL.

          • my_hat_stinks@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            15
            ·
            1 day ago

            Null would be completely blind, no visual data at all. Monochromacy is receiving a single visual channel instead of the more common r,g,b. The original Nosferatu had more colour than that and very few people would argue that’s not a black and white movie.

            • go $fsck yourself@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              1 day ago

              Null would be completely blind, no visual data at all.

              Then what is 0 and 1 when you interpret my example like this? I think you missed the point of my example.

              The whole point is to say that “no color” does not mean black and white. It just means no color data. Similar to how a person born completely blind does not see all black, they just don’t see anything at all. They don’t receive any visual data and their brain does not process color, light intensity, or any optic information at all.

              • my_hat_stinks@programming.dev
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                6
                ·
                1 day ago

                0 to 1 is monochromacy, a single visual channel, eg only rods and no cones. I thought that was fairly clear. Full colour vision would be closer to 0,0,0 to 1,1,1 (plus low-light rods). Null would be no visual channels at all, ie completely blind. I didn’t miss the point of your example, it’s just a very bad analogy.

                Here’s a quick article I found which demonstrates how individual channels are monochromatic and you only get full colour by combining channels, digital image formats were designed for human eyes so this is much more analogous to human vision. With no channels you get nothing at all.

                • go $fsck yourself@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 day ago

                  I don’t need an article to describe how colors are reproduced through RGB, not only because I already am familiar with it but because it is irrelevant to the discussion.

                  The problem is that you’re trying to relate things that are entirely incompatible. You cannot describe the concept of an entire lack of any experience with color by using colors. That’s the exact issue I am trying to point out. The idea of “black and white” or “grayscale” simply requires having experience with color, so that does not apply.

                  It seems you came here just to piss on my analogy, rather than trying to help and have a discussion.