This study developed an add-on-type application to help users who experience Color Vision Deficiency in a display-use environment based on “Shape of Color,” an artistic attempt to express colors as shapes. People who suffer from Color Vision Deficiency, which contains color blindness and color weakness, experience the inconvenience that they cannot detect or distinguish specific areas in the human visible light spectrum in their daily lives. “Shape of Color” transmits the transformed information of color from color to shape and attempts to ensure that users who suffer from Color Vision Deficiency can recognize color unperceivable by the sensory organ. This research was conducted as follows.

First, to organize the background and purpose of the study to help color recognition of Color Vision Deficiency, related works and case studies were researched on the currently identified.

Second, the ‘Shape of Color’ algorithm, which expresses colors in shapes, was defined, and we developed an add-on type application.

Lastly, an informal user study was performed on 6 Color Vision Deficiency participants using a computer, and the result shows the observable usefulness of the ‘Shape of Color’ add-on for their color discrimination.

This paper made a convergence attempt to develop the artwork ‘Shape of Color,’ which represents color in form, into an add-on type application that can help color recognition of Color Vision Deficiency in daily life and verify the system through user-participated evaluation. Through this research, we propose a novel color expression method that alleviates the inconvenience experienced by color vision-impaired people in a display-use environment and changes the data format of color information.

Link to ‘Color Pareidolia’ web application