According to scientists, a new color that has never been seen by mankind has been discovered. The findings were released in Science Advances on Friday, April 18, and the researchers are referring to the new color as “olo.” The new color is “off-the-charts” in terms of saturation, and the five people who have seen it describe it as being similar to a peacock blue or teal.
Researchers claim that only by manipulating the retina with a laser can the color be perceived. According to an article in The Guardian, the researchers had laser pulses sent into their eyes to enable them to notice it, pushing their perception beyond its normal bounds.
“We predicted from the beginning that it would look like an unprecedented colour signal but we didn’t know what the brain would do with it. It was jaw-dropping. It’s incredibly saturated,” said Ren Ng, an electrical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley.
An image of a turquoise square has been shared by the researchers to provide a sense of the colour. Scientists claim the image still does not fully represent the richness of the colour they actually experienced.
“There is no way to convey that colour in an article or on a monitor. The whole point is that this is not the colour we see, it’s just not. The colour we see is a version of it, but it absolutely pales by comparison with the experience of olo,” said Austin Roorda, a vision scientist associated with the team.
Human eyes and colours
The human eye can distinguish millions of shades of colour when light falls on colour-sensitive cells called cones in the retina. There are three types of cones, which are sensitive to long (L), medium (M) and short (S) wavelengths of light.
While red light stimulates L cones and blue light triggers S cones, no natural light is able to stimulate the M cones that are present in the middle of the retina.
The research team scanned volunteers’ retinas to pinpoint the M cones. Then a laser was used to scan the retina and fire a flash of light into the M cone.
Quizzed if human beings would be able to see the colour in everyday life, researchers gave a firm no.
“We’re not going to see olo on any smartphone displays or any TVs anytime soon. And this is very, very far beyond VR headset technology.”
