Euro Coins Test for Color Blindness

Chris writes "Three-hundred million Europeans now have an easy way to check whether or not they suffer from red-green color blindness according to optics.org. Spanish researchers are suggesting that the new Euro coins, introduced in January of this year across most of Europe, could be used as an instant test for red-green color blindness. Color blindness sufferers confuse reds, yellows and greens. Traditional tests to detect deficiency in color vision are difficult to evaluate or calibrate. But in trials comparing 5 cent coins, which have a reddish tone, with 10 and 20 cent coins, which have a yellowish tone, color-blind observers were incapable of separating them while normal observers achieved the operation in seconds."

Comments

Re:Score one for the EU

[Beltza]

The Euro also uses physical properties, which the blind can use. Besides the size and thickness, every coin has a different edge. I have been told that the blind (once used to these coins) have no problems determining the value.
Besides that, a small device (credit card size) has been developed to measure the coin and give its value in braille.

Color blindness testing.

[booch]

Traditional tests to detect deficiency in color vision are difficult to evaluate or calibrate

Complete BS. There are books of standard tests that look for not only the common red-green color blindness, but also several other less common forms. Here's a cool online version.

Missing the point

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

The article wasn't claiming that the Euro was poorly designed. The coins are easily identified if you look at the front, but the flip side (obverse side in the article text) of two coins are strikingly similar in every aspect but red-green hue. Ok, that and the big "5" on the right vs the big "20" on the left.

From the article:

The population which is affected by some type of congenital red-green anomaly has been estimated by several authors as 8% of men and 0.4% of women in Europe and North-America [2].
2. J. Pokorny, V. C. Smith, G. Verriest, A. J. L. G. Pinkers, Congenital and acquired color vision defects, (Grune and Stranton, New York, 1979).

The point is that the vast majority of the population will never get in to have an opthalmologist evaluate their color vision, but now anyone can perform their own screening with a little pocket change.
Since one of the causes of R/G anomolies is undiagnosed Multiple Sclerosis, this is A Good Thing.

Re:Missing the point

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

... But who the hell needs a doctor (or silly coins) to tell them that they're color blind?

Most red-green folks don't know, as they've spent their entire lives subconciously developing coping mechanisms. My brother-in-law was well into grade school before someone noticed that he had an odd fascination with red-green combinations. (actually, he had a bloody nose and was watching the blood drip into the lawn. When asked why, he said it was cool to watch it disappear.) Most colorblindness is subtle -- you don't see the world like a black and white movie, you just don't have all the hues that a healthy visual system has.

Coined money is a public service, but that's ridiculous. Ease in differentiating coins should have been higher on the Europeans' To Do List than testing for MS.

Nobody ever claimed that the EU designed the coins as a colorblindness test. The researchers here got published for noticing that the diff between the gold-ish-colored coin and the copper-ish-colored coin happened to map onto the red-green area that matters for one type of colorblindness.