New Glasses Allow Colorblind To See Spectrum Of Brilliance

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Imagine not being able to see the colors in a rainbow, the red in a stop sign, or the green in a traffic light.

That is what the world is like for 300 million people worldwide who are colorblind. But as CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez reported, a new pair of glasses is changing that.

Arpad Sooky had no idea what he has been missing out on his whole life – a world full of color.

"There's just so much color -- I've never seen this much color," Sooky said. "It's absolutely beautiful."

Sooky is colorblind. His condition affects one in 12 men and one in 200 women worldwide.

"I'll say this is purple, and people around me will say, 'What? That's not purple – it's black!'" said John Ricci, who is also colorblind.

Mark Eidemiller likes to say he is "color confused."

"I would think that's red, and if that's red, that can't be red," he said upon being shown two items that are actually both red.

But now, hundreds of people have been posting videos of what happens when they put on a special pair of glasses.

The glasses are made by EnChroma, and using special light filtering, they bring color to the colorblind.

They gathered Sooky, Ricci and Eidemiller and gave them each a pair to try on.

For Eidemiller, he was truly seeing green for the very first time – as a green Port Authority bus went by. And before putting on the glasses, he thought a woman's green dress was gray.

"You changed it, right?" he said.

With the glasses came color and clarity.

"Now it seems crystal clear and sharp. The stop in the stop sign is crystal clear and sharp," Ricci said. "But without it, it's a little bit blurry."

Arpad said he didn't recognize the brilliance of colors before he tried on these glasses. Now he knows.

"I want to keep wearing them. Just everywhere I look, there's like colors that I've just never really seen before," he said. "I never would have thought this was possible."

The EnChroma glasses are not inexpensive. They list for about $400 and up if you add in prescription lenses.

Insurance coverage depends on your policy, but you should be able to use flex spending or health savings accounts to pay for them.