Researchers unveiled a new color, but only five people could see it

A new color

A research team said it had discovered a new color. The catch? Only five people could see it. Still, experts say the advance could fuel interesting applications in several fields.

How many colors do we see?

The human eye perceives colors by capturing different wavelengths of light. According to Scientific American, people can see up to 10 million distinct colors.

Red, Green, and Blue

The typical human eye detects these colors through three wavelengths: one we perceive as blue, one as green, and the other as red. The combinations of those make up all the colors we see.

Three types of cells

This happens because the eye has three types of cone cells that act as photoreceptors: S to perceive short (blue), M to perceive medium (green), and L to perceive long (red) light wavelengths.

Triggered together

Ren Ng, the primary author and a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, explained to Scientific American that these photoreceptors never activate alone.

A new technique

That is why his team developed a device and technique to activate only one type of photoreceptor. First, they mapped a part of the retina to locate S, M, and L cells.

Labeled Oz after the Wizard of Oz

Then, they shot a laser into the eye to deliver light only to M (green) receptors. The magazine said they called the technology Oz, after the Wizard of Oz, taking inspiration from the journey to the intensely green Emerald City.

Not for general use

Oz was not designed for general use, Ng explained. It is uncomfortable: subjects must bite down hard on a bar to avoid moving their heads while surrounded by mirrors and lasers.

Who saw the new color?

That is why the team, which consisted of three researchers, volunteered to be the subjects. They invited two other researchers who were unaware of the experiment to participate.

'Olo'

The color, named olo, would look like the picture but much more intense, reaching a saturation that the human eye cannot normally perceive. The color in the photo would be the starting point for a very low saturation.

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By James Fong et al. - Sample, Ian, Public Domain

Color verification

Each subject adjusted a controllable color dial until it matched Olo. Based on those results, the team concluded they were all perceiving a color outside the normal human range of color vision.

Skeptics

Still, some experts believe the "new color" claim is a little far-fetched. The discovery is "open to argument," John Barbur, a vision scientist at City St. George's, University of London, told the BBC.

An exciting opportunity

Other experts, on the other hand, praised Oz's study and development. They said it was an exciting opportunity to further the understanding of photoreceptor mechanisms.

"An open question"

"An open question is how this advance can be used," Manuel Spitschan, an expert in light's effects on human behavior at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, told Scientific American.

Animal research

Maarten Kamermans, an expert in vision and the retina from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, gave the magazine a possible answer: animal research.