Olo - Tricking the Eye

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Detail - Queen of Snows 24 x 18” Oil © John Hulsey

In research conducted which may further understanding of color blindness, scientists asked study participants to look into a device consisting of lasers and mirrors, called Oz. The laser pulses fired into the participants’ eyes were calibrated to stimulate only the very specific M color cones of the eye. In normal lighting conditions, all the color cone cells of the eye, called, S, L and M cones are stimulated. L cones detect the longer wavelengths that we see as red. M cones are sensitive to medium wavelengths, which we see as green. S cones detect short wavelengths, which we see as blue. The cones overlap each other under normal conditions with the S, L and M cones never activated completely separately.

This specific stimulation of only the M cones “in principle would send a colour signal to the brain that never occurs in natural vision,” according to the paper published in the journal Science Advances.

“At…