A Blind Man Sees Color

[kpete]

Austin Seraphin has been blind from birth. His iPhone review is enough to make you weep:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.a/6a00d83451c45669e2013487a1ba12970c-550wi


The other night, a very amazing thing happened. I downloaded an app called Color Identifier. It uses the iPhone's camera, and speaks names of colors. It must use a table, because each color has an identifier made up of 6 hexadecimal digits. This puts the total at 16777216 colors, and I believe it. Some of them have very surreal names, such as Atomic Orange, Cosmic, Hippie Green, Opium, and Black-White. These names in combination with what feels like a rise in serotonin levels makes for a very psychedelic experience.

I have never experienced this before in my life. I can see some light and color, but just in blurs, and objects don't really have a color, just light sources...

First, I saw one of my beautiful salt lamps in its various shades of orange, another with its pink and rose colors, and the third kind in glowing pink and red. I was stunned.

The next day, I went outside. I looked at the sky.


more:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/09/a-blind-users-profound-review-of-the-iphone/63400/

[PDJane]

1. Wow. That's an amazing review..........

and a good reason for an almost intuitive software that I had never had to think about. Thank you.

[roguevalley]

2. what a wonderful story. thank you for posting it.

[Lisa0825]

3. Fascinating article! Thanks for posting!

One of my best friends is a teacher and special ed administrator who works with kids with various levels of sight impairment, from moderate to blind from birth. I am sure she will find this to be very interesting too.