A team of scientists claim they have discovered new colors that humans cannot see without the help of technology.
The US-based researcher said that by firing laser pulses in the eyes using a device named after the Wizard of Oz, they can “experience” the colours named “Oro.”
Oro is not visible to the naked eye, but five people who saw it explain it to be similar to Teal.
What did this study find?
Professors at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Washington School of Medicine published an article in the journal Science Advances on April 18, where they published discoveries of hue beyond human vision.
They explained that they had come up with a technique called Oz. This allows the human eye to “deceive” and see Oro. This technique was named after the Wizard of Oz.
The great wizard of Oz, published in 1900, Frank Baum wrote about someone who deceived the inhabitants of the fictional land of Oz to be a wizard. For example, Emerald City, the capital of Oz, is very bright and lively, so it is thought that visitors must wear special glasses to protect their eyes. Glasses are one of the wizard’s tricks. Because they make the city look greener and more spectacular.
How do humans perceive color?
The human eye recognizes color through three types of photoreceptors in the retina or “cone cells.” The S-cone picks up light with shorter, blue wavelengths. m Cone detects medium, green wavelengths. The L cone detects longer red wavelengths.
“The signals from these cones are transmitted through a complex series of cells in the retina, which act to clean up and integrate the signals before passing the optic nerve to a portion of the brain.”
The part of the brain where visual information is passed on is the visual cortex.
How did scientists find “new” colors?
In normal vision, the function of m-cone overlaps with adjacent S and L-cones, so the light that stimulates the M-cone activates the other two cones. The M-cone does not work on its own.
“There is no wavelength that can only stimulate M-cones,” explains Ren Ng, professor of electrical engineering and computer science in Berkeley, California, in an article published on his website.
“I’ve begun to wonder what it would look like if I could stimulate all the M-corn cells. Is it like the greenest green you’ve ever seen?”
Therefore, NG worked with Austin Lolda, one of the creators of OZ Technology and professor of optometry and vision science in Berkeley, California.
The Oz, described by Roorda as “a microscope for viewing the retina,” uses small microrunnings of laser light to target individual photoreceptor cells in the eye. Equipment that needs to be highly stabilized during use is already used in the study of eye diseases.
Work with OZ began in 2018 by James Carl Fong, a doctoral student in electrical engineering and computer science in Berkeley, California. Hannah Doyle, another doctoral student at Berkeley, ran an experiment that allowed human subjects to see new coloured Oro.
Is Oro really a new colour?
Oro’s shades are always present and go beyond the spectrum of shades visible to the human eye. There are other such shades that we cannot see. So, Oro is not a new colour that exists from a physical or scientific perspective.
But “From a sociolinguistic perspective, if people give a new name to a color that they previously couldn’t tell thanks to this technology, it all depends on the way you say it,” Wyndham said.
How many people have seen Oro?
Five saw the “new” colours, four men and one woman. Everything had normal colour vision.
Three subjects, including Roorda and Ng, were co-authors of the research paper, while the other two were members of the University of Washington participating labs and were not aware of the purpose of the study prior to their participation.
What does Oro look like?
Those who have seen Oro describe it as a teal or green-blue colour, but it’s something they’ve never seen before.
In an article by UC Berkeley, it is called “an unparalleled, saturated blue-green colour.”
“It was like a very saturated teal… the most saturated natural colour was pale in comparison,” Roorda said.
“I wasn’t the subject of this paper, but I’ve seen Oro ever since, and it’s very impressive. I know you’re seeing a very blue green,” Doyle said.
Researchers said the image of Teal Square was the closest colour match to Oro. However, this square is not an Oro-colored square. The naked human eyes simply cannot see the shade.
“We don’t see OLOs right away on smartphone displays or TVs. This goes far beyond VR headset technology,” says Ng, according to a report from the UK Guardian newspaper.
What if some colors are not visible?
UC Berkeley scientists discovered Oro. This is a colour that cannot be rendered and I’ve only experienced it.
Will Olo never participate in the Pantone Color System?
– Pantone (@Pantone) April 23, 2025
Can this technology help people with color blindness?
Berkeley researchers are investigating whether OZ technology can help people with color blindness.
Windram said success depends on the cause of an individual’s color blindness. Bichromosomes that cause reduced sensitivity to green light are the most common forms of color blindness.
“In this case, a miniaturized version of this technology can theoretically be used to correct this by directly stimulating the cone when the correct color of light hits them,” says Windram.
Windram noted that the promotional material for the study shows images of the OZ experiment at a highly stable table.
“This requires a lot of work to miniaturize the technology, and it’s probably a long way to go. Given that the lasers have to stably hit the right cone to stimulate them, this may not be practical in technical form of vision correction,” he said.
How can you know what people look like?
The concept of color has three main components, explained Windram. It relates to the wavelength of light that fits your eyes. Neurological. This refers to the way humans biologically process these optical signals. and the social or linguistic components involved in the way color names are named.
“In the end, I might look at the colour and call it ‘red’. Someone else might call it “rot” or “rouge,” but another might look at it a little closer and say “Well, it’s a claret” or “deep crimson.” ”
To test this, Neuroscience and AI researcher Patrick Mineault developed a website in September 2024 for entertainment purposes. For this purpose, users can see how their perception of color is compared to others.
Humans can also perceive color in different ways due to differences in factors such as the “temperature” of light. This was demonstrated in 2015 when the dress photo went viral, with social media users separating whether the dress was white and gold, or blue and black.
Windram explained that those who decide what color the dress is in are portrayed by preconceived notions of whether the dress was taken in warm or cool lighting.
Do animals see colors differently from humans?
Yes, the colour may vary depending on the species.
For example, humans process three wavelengths corresponding to red, blue and green light, while the small crustacean Mantis shrimp can visually perceive 12 channels of colour, not three. An article from the Australian Academy of Sciences also explains that Mantis shrimp can detect ultraviolet and polarized light, but humans cannot see it.
However, the human eye can mix the two colors and perceive a shade that is intermediate, such as a purple color, like a mixture of red and blue, while the shrimp eye of Mantis cannot mix color receptors.
On the other hand, dogs only have two types of cones, and mostly only appear in yellow and blue shades.
