Presentation of the principle and the prototype system. Credit: Scientific advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126 / SCIADV.ADU1052
A team of engineers, computer scientists and ophthalmologists from the University of California in Berkeley, working with a pair of colleagues from the University of Washington, has developed a technique to stimulate the retina that allows people to see a color not normally seen by humans.
In their study published in the journal Scientific advancesThe group identified certain photoreceptors in volunteers, then stimulated them to allow these volunteers to see the unique color, which the team called “Olo”.
The human eye has two types of photoreceptors, stems and cones. The stems are mainly used to see in dark conditions. The cones are also divided into long, medium and short cones (L, M and S) as a function of the wavelength of the light they most effectively treat. Previous research has shown that there is a certain overlap in the treatment of light between the cones, and the researchers wondered what would happen if the light was not treated by a single type, like M.
To find out, they used adaptive tomography of optical consistency to identify M photoreceptors in a section of the retina for several volunteers – cards are unique for each person. They then turned into turn that each volunteer in front of a small square target and focusing on a certain part of it while a laser was fired on the photoreceptors Mr. Researchers call their OZ technique, a tribute to the “Wizard of Oz” books.
The volunteers, who understood some of the researchers themselves, could see a color that the team calls Olo, after the letters that correspond to numbers 0, 1 and 0, representing the photoreceptors L, M or S. Most described it as a highly saturated blue. The research team then showed the photographs and videos of volunteers with the OLO added color, allowing a new viewing experience.
The team suggests that their technique could be a useful way to study color blindness and perhaps even treat the disorder by simulating the stimulation experience a fourth type of cone, which occurs naturally in some people with tetrachromacy.
More information:
James Fong et al, new color via the stimulation of individual photoreceptors at the population scale, Scientific advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126 / SCIADV.ADU1052
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