Color Vision for Colorblinds

Thoughts 3 Comments

Yesterday I went shopping. First I needed some fruits whereas I always encounter the same problem: Are the bananas already ripe or still green? At a first glance I couldn’t tell the difference and I didn’t like to ask a shop assistant or bite into a green banana at home. That’s why I took out my brand new ColorLuminator, held it onto the banana and pressed the one and only button. In an instance I could read the correct color on the built in screen. They are yellow. Great, I’ll take them.

Afterwards some cloth shopping had to be done as well. I needed some new shirts. My wife said I could buy a very fashioned purple one and a light green which would fit to my new trousers. So I went to the shop and had a look around. But there were so many shirts to choose from, which would usually be a very hard decision and often a lucky strike with my color blindness. And I was not in the mood to tell the story of my color blindness to the salesclerk. Again I took out my new favourite device, the ColorLuminator, pointed onto some shirts and found with its help the sought-after purple shirt.

On my why home the sun light was shining directly into the traffic lights and I couldn’t see if red or green is glowing. But again with the help of my ColorLuminator I made my way home safely.

Wouldn’t it be great? Great to have such a tool. Unfortunately this is not true yet. You can’t buy a ColorLuminator in the stores today. But Ian Cannon, a 17 year old student from Sydney, developed a tool like this and is on the way to maybe win the Nescafe Big Break, a big prize for young entrepreneurs. With the help of publicitiy and the money he could maybe make a dream come true and develop the ColorLuminator for the mass market. He was already thinking about this idea when he was 12. But only when he understood how to measure color he could start developing his Luminance Contrast Device.

I am looking forward to see some kind of tool like this ready to use. It could be of great help for people suffering any kind of color blindness. And maybe, if we look even further into the future, the ColorLuminator could be built into your glasses and show the name of the color you focus on directly on the glass itself. Wonderful.

Further readings:
Nescafé Big Break: Finalists 2006
Hot recipes for niche success

Related articles:
Green Bananas
Shopping for my Boy
Walk – Don’t Walk

Parquet Flooring

Stories 1 Comment
Rustic Red Oak - Wide Planks
Rustic Red Oak

We just bought a house and we are very happy about it. Only ten days to go and we can start with our renovation.

On the upper floor we will lay new parquet flooring, which took as quite some time to decide about.

First we thought to use some carpets. But during the last months and weeks we came to the decision to use wood. A great decision, I thought, because you can omit the color discussion as it would be when using carpets. Wood is just wood and this is not about colors. – This was before we consulted the first parquet flooring companies!

Now I am a few weeks older, which feels like years, and a lot smarter concerning wood. There are so many different kinds of parquet flooring to choose from, it’s incredible.

  • Many different wood types. For example White Oak, Red Oak and Silver Maple.
  • The wood quality like premium, select, character or rustic.
  • Different plank sices. You can choose from 3-strip or 2-strip, wide or extra wide, just to number a few.
  • And last but not least the finishing. Either sealed or oiled. And if you choose oiled it is white, normal or dark oiled. And if you choose oak you can even choose from many many different color oils….
Rustic Ash - Wide Planks
Rustic Ash

There are many decisions to take and this are decisions which will last long. And if you are colorblind it isn’t easier at all. You can’t talk with the others who can see colors because they talk about the reddish one which you just had a look at a few minutes ago. Huh?

You have to go and look at all the example planks. And omit talking about colors. Because there are only slight color differences which you will never ever be able to see as a colorblind.

We decided not to talk about colors but just have a look at them and choose the most beautiful one. It is a rustic white oak extra wide plank white oiled – as I can tell you know as an expert in parquet flooring.