Colors in the sight

Humans are able to distinguish about 10 million colors. This capability has meant that we have incorporated many colors into the culture as symbols of all kinds. However, unlike other perceptions such as taste or hearing, the vision of colors is forgetful. Any way, thousands of pigments are currently available thanks to the modern chemical industry. But in spite of these diversity, only three colors are needed to get the rest. And these three colors called “primary light colors” are not arbitrary defined, their origin is found in our physiology: our eyes have three types of cones in the retina that capture the light of red, green and blue (RGB) and in the brain the rest of colors are formed by combining these three. This property is used in TV and in print. However, there is a congenital dysfunction called “daltonism” or “color-blindness” that affects 8% of males and 5% of women and consists of an alteration of the cones so that some colors are confused, especially greens and browns. The diagnosis of color-blindness has not been systematically applied in schools until recently, and many codes and signals are based in colors, difficulting  their intreptretation by color-blinds. Josep Giribet, artist and multimedia expert affected by color-blindness, has devised a system based on image processing software that lets him work with colors in spite of his visual limitation.