The Weird World in RGB

Technology Connections · 2.7M views · 2019-08-28 · 22:19

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Overview

Technology Connections explains how RGB light and color work, from hue and saturation to color vision and how objects appear under different lighting. It uses a studio setup with colored lights to demonstrate the effects.

On Hacker News

HN points to it as an accessible explanation of how color and reflected light behave, especially under LED lighting.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2020–2021

Topics

Graphic design & typography Everyday physics & science demos Neuroscience & the brain

What people said

lathiat · 2020-09 · Recommendation
This works for direct illumination (eg an LCD screen) but fails for reflected light (eg a light). This video from Technology Connections helps explain [VIDEO]
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goblin89 · 2021-11 · Reference
Why would you do that I don't know, but for me personally the reason is that LEDs tend to strobe (sometimes noticeably to peripheral vision) and do not emit a smooth continuous spectrum—unlike incandescent bulbs, they produce a narrow, spiky spectrum[0] and objects in your room may look unnatural as they reflect it[1]; this may be especially bad with some RGB LEDs but fundamentally is a property of all LED lights because physics. [0] [LINK] [1] [VIDEO]
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zinekeller · 2021-02 · Reference
Short answer: No. We (the majority anyway, as some are colourblind) only perceive lightness, reddish, greenish, and bluish. The brain uses the info and effectively synthesises the image in our brains. Long answer: Colour is a very rabbithole topic but Captain Disillusion has a summary of it ( [LINK] ) and Technology Connections has a discussion ( [VIDEO] ).
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Sources

Video by Technology Connections, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

Data and selection notes

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