How we see color - Colm Kelleher

There are three types of color receptors in your eye: red, green and blue. But how do we see the amazing kaleidoscope of other colors that make up our world? Colm Kelleher explains how humans can see everything from auburn to aquamarine.

Talk by Colm Kelleher, animation by TED-Ed.

[lbncstll]

i love that our eyes are seeing this and knowing that this is happening while we're watching this

[dargon]

First I always think the natural world is beautiful. But in a way, the act of us learning something is just as beautiful

[Tamizushi]

While I knew all of these things, I always have a hard time explaining and you guys are doing an awesome job at it. I think from now on everything I speak to someone about colours the eyes I'm just gonna show them this video instead. Keep up the good work!! :)

[NovaRuner]

this fascinating! but then I started to wonder... what if someone genetically engineered a people with retina cone cells for other light waves? like ultraviolet or radio waves. would those guys think the rest of us color blind? and how might their perception of color be different from ours?  Makes you think doesn't it?

[Jcarr]

RGB is an additive color system, where the colors combine together at the same time.
Red blue and yellow form the basis of a subtractive color system. Each dye works by absorbing colors, but reflecting a certain frequency well in order to give it its color. When you combine them, the two dyes each absorb some of each others frequencies, which causes them to reduce the strength of the two.
The primary colors in each are really determined by several things and I don't have room here for it.

[irasanchez]

I like hearing voice artists with a variety of accents. Addison is good, but I'm happy to hear the diversity of others.

[pulpfictionost]

lol, Its an Irish accent.
He sounds so happy. :D

[numex]

seeing this makes me want to protect my eyes more

[asmitapaul_]

Ted-Ed videos r equal to ASMR videos for mee, so relaxing ...😌 (additional benefit: no wastage of any products and u get to know about something in detail)

[indebtanup]

Wouldn't noise cancellation require both waves to have the same frequency? So that, like you said, the opposite amplitudes coincide.

This gets me thinking though: If waves of diff frequencies superpose, then shouldn't we always just see one resultant wave? Rather than seeing discrete colors and objects, shouldn't we just see one "final" wave as given by the superposition formula?

[priyapanicker]

Did anybody notice the color wheel shown in this video at 0:46 is wrong. Blue, red and yellow are the primary colors. They have green in place of yellow.

[Tupster]

A nice, concise, and simple explanation of a complex topic.

[Daph]

Wow, I'm used to working with RGB stuff in photoshop and video editing software, but I honestly never knew why these three colours are so important. Thank you so much for clearing that up, it totally makes sense to me now!:)

[nontrainspotter]

Yea, you made my point clearer and more concise than I did, hadn't thought about the "cross wiring" with other sensations of which there are many examples now I think about it!

[taalatchouf]

This is one of the most fascinating video I've ever seen. Proves how little I know. Thanks!

[sofiya]

Animations are WOW really playing a big role in understanding and learning. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[taleahbailey]

Ahhh, the 'no signal' tv screen with that specific array of colours... It all makes sense haha!

[happilyevernever]

0:35 how is color a physical property of light? Color only happens in the mind. And our perceptions may differ to others with how we perceive it in our mind. We cannot prove that everyone's perception of yellow is the same coz of how it is perceived in the brain.

[Alphathon]

What makes it even sillier is that the video that is being displayed is encoded in terms of R, G and B, so any yellow that is displayed is merely reconstructed from the existing RGB source, which is what our eyes would do anyway.

[ahmedelsawy]

there is an error at 2:15 it is not another way it is the same way