A Hue challenge - not an image!

[mikemeister_admin]

Hi,

I've been playing around with colour for a bit and wrote a Clock program which uses colour to tell the time - however I then realised that I could turn this into an interesting tester tool, that would measure one's ability to detect changes in Hue.

I'm posting this link here, because you are probably as interested in colour (correction) as I am and I did not realise that I could not see as many hues of colour as I thought I could.  I can not work out what the implications are for my post-processing.

I would value other people's input and also confirmation that none of us can see 60 distinct hues!

So if you have a moment, please follow the link, do the test and let me know the results.

http://www.broadhurst-family.co.uk/lefteye/MainPages/colourclock.htm

Thanks
Chris

[mikemeister_admin]

Ah - forgot to include my test result - can you see the difference in Hue or is it just my PC?

[ggroess]

Chris,

Here are my results.  I found it interesting, that a visual effect I noticed, was that after staring at the monitor so intently I was starting to see color halos around the hues.  It was hard to discern the color changes due to the "halo". (i.e a ball with darker ring around the edge.)

You might want to break the test up into 4 smaller tests.  12 to 3 then a stop for a "Color Break" the 3 to 6 etc.

Our eyes tend to adjust to the colors in front of us quickly and I think some of the missed hues in your test are due to color saturation in your eyes rather than ability to see them on the monitor. 

I point to your clock version with the colors all displayed.  I can see all the colors in the 60 color ring but when the test runs the color change is not large enough to over run the color saturation that is occuring in my eyes due to staring at the monitor. 

Another possible way of testing this is to jump from red to green then to blue and theen back to a different red etc.  This would negate the color overflow but it would not allow you to differentiate between hues.

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Excellent point Greg - I had the same problems.

I've now updated the program to allow one to choose how often one pauses, so it not be exactly at quarters etc. - however it did not help me see any more colour changes, in fact I think the break did more harm than good!

Chris

[ggroess]

really how interesting...let me try that later tonight when I have some time...

Greg

[ggroess]

Ok...

How interesting..I did worse too..but a funny thing happened on the way to this answer.

I let my 11 yo son do the 30 and 60 tests without a break.  He only missed 2 hue changes out of the 30 and about 4 out of the 60 in areas where I saw no change. 

Maybe younger eyes are better at the color spotting.

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Interesting Greg - especially young eyes, guess old age has a few faults!

This subject appears to be of limited interest to people. 

I've posted it to 3 forums and so far (24 hours later) 196 people have looked and 10 have downloaded the test.

I have had 2 replies saying they can see all hues and 4 that had trouble with the greens and sometimes the reds.

I guess that if people could see the hue difference on the posted image, they would have said so - if that is correct, then the majority of people have difficulting in these hues on THEIR screens (have no idea how many are calibrated).

I think I'll do a little more research and perhaps try a stationary test, with bands (of different thickness) changing hues over a limited range.  Maybe that will make a difference from a moving test - I'll have to let my little grey cells do a little more work.

Chris