Apparently there are over 300 million people in the world today who suffer from some form of color blindness (or ‘color vision deficiency’ as the professionals call it). The problem can range from a mild form which confuses specific colors to a full blown version which can be severely debilitating. Now a new innovation from an American company could help these people see what the rest of us see.

EnChroma CX range of sunglasses feature specially coated lenses which filter the problem light wavelengths to correct deficiencies and so produce a more ‘real’ color image in the eye. By blocking confusing wavelengths, the lenses improve the ‘signal to noise’ ratio of the incoming light waves and thereby help people see colors more accurately.

There are several versions of the sunglasses available, including the EnChroma CX-D for those who typically have difficulty with green/brown or pink/grey differentiation, and the EnChroma CX-PT for people who commonly mistake red and brown or green and orange. The lenses are also impact and scratch resistant and can be incorporated into different form factors as needed.

If you are completely color blind this new technology won’t help you at all, however the developers are confident that if you are like the majority of people and simply suffer from a deficiency of color vision, e.g. you are red/green deficient, then this tech can indeed help by reducing extraneous color information to reduce confusion.

The EnChroma CX product range will be out in mid-October of this year and prices will start at $800 for fully framed products, or $700 for the coated lenses themselves (which will need to be inserted into frames by a professional of course).