Tetrachromacy & Pentachromacy

[Flyndaran]

It would likely cause problems as things don't look the same to you as they do to normals. Realistic images would look wrong for example.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It would likely cause problems as things don't look the same to you as they do to normals. Realistic images would look wrong for example.

That's a bonus if the images are adversarial, like camoflage.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

That's a bonus if the images are adversarial, like camoflage.

Definitely, but that also works with common "color blindness" too. Things meant to work for the majority don't for the minority, for good and bad.

I think my lifemate may be weakly tetrachromatic. She sees differences in shades that I and her friends don't. While my visual acuity sucks, my color perception is good. It caused her a bit of irritation in art school.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

That's a bonus if the images are adversarial, like camoflage.

Assuming it's not doing spectrum matching, either by design, or by just using the same material for the camouflage as what you're trying to hide behind. Also, anything that looks weird to a tetrachromat has a decent chance of also looking different to some trichromats, because there's variance in response curves for the three cone types, and a tetrochromat just has two different variants on one of those types.

[Xplo]

Problem is, that fourth color sensitivity isn't good for much. Yes, they have a little more green sensitivity than trichromats, and they may be able to tell the difference between a "true" green and one that's made up of a mix of nearby frequencies, and so sometimes they might notice that a pigment looks "fake". But that has very little practical use. It's not going to let them magically pick out decent camouflage, or divine the health of plants or anything like that.

Now, if they had a receptor that was sensitive in the near IR or near UV, that would be a different matter...