Prototype of a screen colour test

Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to develop a new digital colour vision test.

Material and Methods:

Based on the principle of metamerism, a digital testing strategy was developed for efficient measurement of colour vision. Twentyfive subjects participated in the study, 21 of whom had normal colour vision and four of whom had a congenital colour vision disorder. Differences in colour vision were examined by monocular presentation of halfquadrants of different hues and degrees of saturation, and the algorithm calculated the colour vision defects that occurred based on the subjects’ responses. The following colour vision values were assigned from the data: a colour scale range of 2.76 – 7.18 for normal colour vision and greater than 7.18 for colour sense disorders. A second new colour scale assessed the type of colour vision disturbance: in the range of 0 – 0.3 were values for a deuteranomaly, in the range of 0.6 – 1.0 were values for a protanomaly, and a value of 1.0 corresponded to a tritanomaly.

Results:

The difference in colour vision between subjects with normal colour vision and those with a colour vision defect was confirmed (p < 0.001) by measuring the type and the exten of the colour vision disorder was determined. In the group of subjects with normal colour perception, a mean colour scale value of 3.41 ± 0.52 was determined. The extent of colour sense disturbance for the subjects with colour vision impairment was values of 7.18 – 14.33 according to the colour scale, indicating greater variability.

Conclusion:

The developed algorithm provided meaningful results regarding the colour perception of the test persons. It was possible to differentiate between normal colour vision and colour vision disorder could be shown. Furthermore, the variation between subjects with normal colour vision could be evaluated.