Description
Retina helps color blind people to identify colors in the camera preview (Augmented Reality). Ideal for shopping and other occasions.
What's New in Version 1.1
Added selector for light sources
Customer Reviews
Colorblind user's review
I saw this and bought it hoping it would help me determine colors better. I am Red Green Blue colorblind and have a real problem with those colors being misinterpreted with other colors on the spectrum clo0se to them. I thought this app would fix that problem. Unfortunately it has not. This app does a horrible job of telling color, I tried in on some clothing to which I knew the color (my mom had picked them out and told me what they were) and it often got them completely wrong. Every now and then it would get close, but I myself can guess a color or get it close. I like the idea and look forward to seeing any future improvements, but as of now, this app did not work very well for me.
Retina a win for people with color deficiencies
The app offers individuals with color-blindness two important pieces of information: hue and saturation. The hue of whatever color appears in the empty hole in the center of the disc on the screen can be found in text just above the disc. For example, if you pass over a green pair of socks, you can read the word, "Green" just above the disc.
Saturation is a measure of the strength of the color. For example, if the color is red, it can vary anywhere from light pink--low saturation--to full-on red, with no other color mixed in. This is an important piece of information to those suffering from color deficiencies. Even though, to those with normal color vision, such a red appears "bright," it actually isn't high in luminance, because all the green and blue of white light are absent. It may actually appear as a dark gray. The individual with color deficiencies who thus picks out a conservative gray tie to wear to a funeral, only to learn it is flaming red, may face significant embarrassment.
Saturation is indicated in Retina by the small black circle that rides up and down at the 12 o'clock position on the disc. The closer to the edge of the disc, the greater the saturation. The disc spins to show the current hue, but that is, of course, of no particular utility to someone who cannot see hue. I’m not quite sure why the developer even bothered with that capability.
The app accomplishes its apparent goals: It properly identifies both hue and saturation. It does so equally well reading off a computer screen or examining clothes in one's closet. People with color deficiencies tend to be extremely methodical with their clothing to avoid any embarrassments. Retina can surely relieve them of the anxiety of making a mistake, particularly at a critical time. I can't imagine any reason someone with color deficiencies would not want to spend the 99 cents for this app as it exists today.
Future releases should go further. First, real people don’t think or talk about color in strict terms of hue and saturation. For example, according to Retina, I have a whole bunch of red-orange items around my house. Actually, I don’t. What I have are a lot of brown objects around my house—wood floors, wood furniture, brown shoes, etc. Right now, Retina cannot identify brown as a color. That is a problem, as is it’s inability to identify pink, etc. The Retina color pallette needs to be “humanized.”
I would love to see a review by an individual with color deficiencies discussing shopping for clothes with Retina vs. a normally-sighted friend or professional shopper. I suspect that greater descrimination than, say, orange vs. yellow is needed to pick out a particular shade, say apricot, not salmon, that will work with that powder blue shirt found earlier. Can someone with color deficiences, armed with Retina, actually make clothing choices that will prove harmonious? I don’t know. Could algorythms be developed that would allow someone using this kind of instrument to make harmonious choices? I again don’t know. Of course, you buy once and wear many times. Having an electronic aid during purchase is not as vital as having a tool like Retina that can ensure you can repeatedly reassemble the outfit you chose once it’s home in the closet.
I do not suffer from color-blindness, although I have been involved in developing both guidelines and applications for use by individuals with color blindness. I, therefore, cannot attest to the app's utility based on personal experience. On the other hand, I can attest that the app is accurately mapping real-world colors onto the images being seen by the iPhone camera.
I hope someone who has color deficiencies will soon write a review that can complement this one. In the meantime, this app represents an important breakthrough in Augmented Reality. For too long, Augmented Reality has been a solution in search of a problem. This, like the new DishPointer AR Pro app, is an app that actually solves a real problem that will not bend easily to other solutions.
I have high hopes for future versions..
To the author - please see that your Retina application understands that there is a color white (not "too bright") and a color black (not "too dark"). Too many colors register as orange that I know are brown or grey. I wonder if some of this may have to do with limitations of the camera in my iPhone 3GS. In any case, I am expecting future versions of this program to do better and better.
- Category: Utilities
- Updated Dec 11, 2009
- Current Version: 1.1
- 0.1 MB
- Languages: English, German
- Seller: Stefan Fuerst
- © Stefan Fürst
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone. Requires iPhone OS 3.1 or later.
