Colourblind solvers

Hi

I'm colourblind. I'm curious about other colourblind people playing the Rubik's cube. I'm only playing for a few days now and I have one cube (not so good, ordered a better one) but I found some problems because I'm colourblind. At least on my cube the yellow and orange can be difficult to tell apart, especially in certain light. Other than that, it can be significantly slow to recognize the colurs because colours just don't imediately jump at me like for people who are not. It's like a traffic light, I first look at the place (top, middle, bottom) of the light, not the colour.

So how is it for others?

Are you really colorblind (with black and white) or only with green and red or other colours, that you say with yellow and orange.
I'm not colourblind.

I don't think there's such a thing as "really colourblind" who doesn't see colours at all. All colourblinds are "really" colourblind. There are just different ways in the way "real" colourblinds are colourblind. I see colours, but some colours (often depending on specific hues, light, light angle, etc.) are very hard to tell apart. It's that you don't see them, it's the ability to recognize what they are that is different from "normal" people.

For example, sometimes green and orange are next to each other and are easy to tell apart. Sometimes I'll see one and wouldn't be sure if it was green or orange. Or one side has more light than another, I might not be sure between the yellow and orange too (if the yellow is in lower light and orange in stronger light). The red on my cube is pretty dark, but even that can sometimes take a bit to be sure if it's red or orange. What this means is that I sometimes need to look at a piece for a few seconds to be sure what it is, or possibly move the cube to change the angle I'm looking at it. It happened that I was sure I was right with the cross only to find I reversed green and orange, or "prepared" pieces in F2L and only when next to each other realizing they are not the right ones etc.

clarnibass said:

Hi

I'm colourblind. I'm curious about other colourblind people playing the Rubik's cube. I'm only playing for a few days now and I have one cube (not so good, ordered a better one) but I found some problems because I'm colourblind. At least on my cube the yellow and orange can be difficult to tell apart, especially in certain light. Other than that, it can be significantly slow to recognize the colurs because colours just don't imediately jump at me like for people who are not. It's like a traffic light, I first look at the place (top, middle, bottom) of the light, not the colour.

So how is it for others?

Click to expand...

I'm orange/red colour deficient, so they look almost identical to me, so i have to buy cubes which have really bright orange or really dark red... and solve big cubes with great difficulty.
I can just about tell the difference between the V Cube orange / red, so I aim to get that colour when buying new cubes.

I also see white as a very light yellow, but this only affects me if im solving at night because the glare from the lights make the yellow the same colour.

I don't see it as a hindrance, just something else to work through, like my Dyslexia, You just get used to it, if it helps try not to think of them as the colours they are, think of them as the colours you see them as, and you will be fine.

I think Harris Chan is colorblind, and he is one of the bests.

I would suggest making your own colour scheme with colours that are easily distinguishable to you.
Or even using stickers with shapes (stars ect.)

Breandan Vallance, World Champion 2009
Harris Chan, super fast north american guy
Chipmunk, (aka. Tim Major)

That's the only three I can think of right now, but there are more of them!

Odder said:

Breandan Vallance, World Champion 2009
Harris Chan, super fast north american guy
Chipmunk, (aka. Tim Major)

That's the only three I can think of right now, but there are more of them!

Click to expand...

Mats Valk
+ plenty of others that I forget.

Tim Major is only red-green colour blind lols.

is waffo colour blind?

fazrulz said:

Mats Valk
+ plenty of others that I forget.

Tim Major is only red-green colour blind lols.

Click to expand...

Tim Major is so colour blind that he cannot see the difference between his and your cube (even though he has retarded stickers) in your WR video, that's why he is posing with it

EDIT: If there is a "Colour blind for 2x2x2" category, then add me in for that

fazrulz said:

Mats Valk
+ plenty of others that I forget.

Tim Major is only red-green colour blind lols.

Click to expand...

Only? That's the most common colour blindness in guys. I tested as blue orange colour blind and red green about 8 years ago, but the latest time I was tested it was red green.
I have trouble with yellow/Orange on some cubes, but that is certainly not colourblindness.

On a wee sidenote. There are VERY rare occurances of 'real colourblindness'. One guy with this was studied recently at my local university, his view of the world was such that he couldn't tell an immediate difference between a film that was in colour from one that was black and white. However he did have increased abilities to distiguish shades, and could link shades to what other people called colours... as such he could look at black and white photos and identify the colour of the clothes worn by the people in them (to an extent). Apprently his father who also had this was used during the war for aerial reconnaissance, cause traditional camouflage is useless to someone who see the world like this.

Anyway, I'm slightly colour blind and feel like it's making F2L extra difficult for me, but I'm pretty sure it can be overcome.
Check out Cubesmith to see if there are any sticker colours you could swap to make recognition easier.

I made this some time ago: [wiki]List of Notable Color Blind Cubers[/wiki]. Please add any new info.

Godmil said:

On a wee sidenote. There are VERY rare occurances of 'real colourblindness'. One guy with this was studied recently at my local university, his view of the world was such that he couldn't tell an immediate difference between a film that was in colour from one that was black and white. However he did have increased abilities to distiguish shades, and could link shades to what other people called colours... as such he could look at black and white photos and identify the colour of the clothes worn by the people in them (to an extent).

Click to expand...

This is interesting because it's actually not completely different from me

I usually don't imediately notice if a film is black & white or in colour. It's not that I can't tell, but I usually don't really notice until it is pointed out to me. Sometimes it's very obvious if colours are very vivid, but some black & white films are harder to notice.
I remember a specific film I watched in the cinema and I didn't notice it was black & white. In one scene a woman was asking someone what dress she should wear, the red or the green (or whatever colours). He asnwered "the gray dress". Everyone laughed, and I thought the joke was that he was colurblind... but they both were gray because the film was in black & white! I only got the "real" joke by coincidence when some friends talked about it, or maybe everyone else missed the "real" joke

I also usually notice shades better than most people. I often notice what is brighter or darker, even between different colours. That's how I usually notice the orange and green on my cube, the orange is a little darker. But when I only see one of them, it's harder to be sure, especially in low light, and when light is reflecting from them in a certain angle they look identical. Same for some of the other colours.

I guess I'm a "harder case" (pun intended) than a lot of others

Thanks for the Cubesmith link. I see some options that might be easier. Pink instead of orange might work bette, depending on how bright/dark it is. I'll look more.

Thanks again

That's really intesesting. Thanks for shareing.
Also I should mention some people like to use Black stickers, so they're still an option for higher contrast.

Hmm. My dad is colourblind too and has the same problems as you (yellow orange) and does the same thing for the traffic lights. He finds Half-Bright stickers alot easier to differentiate.

I'm red-green colour blind and find red and green hard to tell apart (obviously) and yellow and orange, maybe changing my colour scheme could make me go a bit faster?

Try half-bright/bright stickers.

SamKennedy said:

I'm red-green colour blind and find red and green hard to tell apart (obviously) and yellow and orange, maybe changing my colour scheme could make me go a bit faster?

Click to expand...

Well if you're having trouble telling the stickers apart with normal colours then changing them would definitely help. What you could do is replace the colours you're having trouble with different ones, for examble you could have pink instead of red and black instead of yellow. Don't be afraid to completely scrap the regular colour scheme if it's causing difficulties. It might mean you spend a little extra on stickers but it sounds like it would be worth it.

I sometimes have problems with recognizing red and orange on the cube. I think that that was one of the reasons why I did that bad at OH at my last competition. I (relatively) often notice that I did put the blue-x-y slot instead of green-x-y slot or even more often I need to do R2 U2 R2 U2 R2 to finish the F2L (because I for example connected green-red-white and orange-white instead of red-white).
I once had a cube with brighter stickers (white SS 6x6, I usually use the stickers that come with Dayan cubes) and I think it didn't help (me) much.
Ps.: I think that the absolute color blindness is called achromatopsia, or something (didn't bother looking up the English term for it).