There Is No Yellow

Team: 51

School: Melrose High

Area of Science: Physiology

Interim: Our Project:
Our project is connected to the fact that there are no yellow pixels on a computer or television screen. All colors are made up of combinations of red, green, and blue pixels which are grouped sided by side in repeating patterns. As these three colors of pixels are turned on and off in various combinations, they make it possible for a monitor or screen to show millions of color combinations. All based on the RGB values.
Since there is no yellow, and it is made up of various combinations of the RGB values, it can be seen that there are any number of ways to make up countless shades and hues of yellow colors. This presents us with an opportunity to do research on how the human eye perceives these minute changes, and led us to form a hypothesis: Some people will be better able to detect changes in colors than others.

Computational Model:
As stated, we will be testing how different people are able to perceive tiny differences in color samples presented to them. This can be tested by using a computer screen that flashes four squares of a certain color on the screen, and then makes subtle changes to one area, bit by bit. A research subject can then indicate when they see the change, and this information can be used to make other comparisons. For example: Do females do better than males? Does eye color have any effect? Is there an ‘age effect’ on the outcome? Are people from different jobs and industries show any differences in their abilities to detect color changes? These are just a few items of information for us to do a statistical analysis of in order to complete our project.
Progress:
We have been able to design and build the computer assisted portion of our project, and it is able to make those small changes to one portion of the screen as described before. It also scores the person on how successfully and quickly they DID select the correct ‘color changing’ portion of the screen. As we have been testing it, we have found that we need to make the color areas smaller, closer together, and have a better metered rate of change be presented. This will give our test subject volunteers a more comfortable experience, and help keep our results more accurate by not adding in the variable of ‘subject reaction time’ to the study.
We are now looking into the best types of statistical analysis to use with this project, to give us an idea of how meaningful the results actually are.
Results Expected:
We expect to see a statistical difference in the ability of people with specific characteristics to notice a change in color. As a guess, we expect it to be better for females (who tend to be more ‘fashion and beauty’ conscious) and those in jobs where color is more important (artists and fashion designers).
References:
1 – YouTube video: “There is NO Yellow”
2 – Google search: “Color Perception by Different Animals.”
3 – Google search: “Human Color Perception.”
4 – Book: “The Human Eye”. Mathew Harper.
5 – Article: “Vision”. Isaac Asimov. “The Human Body”

Team Members:

  Lily Macfarlane

Sponsoring Teacher: Alan Daugherty

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