Today, Color Identifier (also known as Color ID, as it appears on the iPhone home screen) picked up a lot of attention.
Color ID Free by Greengar Studios
I think it started with a blind person’s excellent blog post about his experience with an iPhone. I found it to be very touching– I highly recommend reading it. Here’s the relevant part:
The other night, however, a very amazing thing happened. I downloaded an app called Color ID. It uses the iPhone’s camera, and speaks names of colors. It must use a table, because each color has an identifier made up of 6 hexadecimal digits. This puts the total at 16777216 colors, and I believe it. Some of them have very surreal names, such as Atomic Orange, Cosmic, Hippie Green, Opium, and Black-White. These names in combination with what feels like a rise in serotonin levels makes for a very psychedelic experience.
I have never experienced this before in my life. I can see some light and color, but just in blurs, and objects don’t really have a color, just light sources. When I first tried it at three o’clock in the morning, I couldn’t figure out why it just reported black. After realizing that the screen curtain also disables the camera, I turned it off, but it still have very dark colors. Then I remembered that you actually need light to see, and it probably couldn’t see much at night. I thought about light sources, and my interview I did for Get Lamp. First, I saw one of my beautiful salt lamps in its various shades of orange, another with its pink and rose colors, and the third kind in glowing pink and red.. I felt stunned.
The next day, I went outside. I looked at the sky. I heard colors such as “Horizon,” “Outer Space,” and many shades of blue and gray. I used color queues to find my pumpkin plants, by looking for the green among the brown and stone. I spent ten minutes looking at my pumpkin plants, with their leaves of green and lemon-ginger. I then roamed my yard, and saw a blue flower. I then found the brown shed, and returned to the gray house. My mind felt blown. I watched the sun set, listening to the colors change as the sky darkened. The next night, I had a conversation with Mom about how the sky looked bluer tonight. Since I can see some light and color, I think hearing the color names can help nudge my perception, and enhance my visual experience. Amazing!
I love my iPhone. It changed my universe as soon as it entered it.
- Austin Seraphin
I’m honored and humbled to have contributed this great experience.
He writes: “Last Wednesday, my life changed forever. I got an iPhone. I consider it the greatest thing to happen to the blind for a very long time, possibly ever.” Of course, there are many things about the iPhone that makes it such a boon for the blind. Color Identifier is just one of them, and for that, I’m very glad.
The article was on Hacker News. Carlos McEvilly pointed it out to me. (Thanks, Carlos!)
In addition, it has been tweeted and retweeted hundreds of times. Here’s a small selection:
firsthand account of an iphone “I watched the sun set, listening to the colors change as the sky darkened” http://bit.ly/9X2a2u
- @gussetingblind
RT @vaughanbell: Amazing last paragraphs of iPhone review by blind user on how it names color and affects perception. http://is.gd/fiNmz
- @snarkyxanf
Really .liking how Color Identifier updates info in real-time as you walk around.
- @ricky_enger
Ricky also submitted Color Identifier to AppleVis. I’m glad VoiceOver can read the hex value. I didn’t do anything special to make this work– I didn’t test with VoiceOver prior to releasing the app– so it looks like Apple has done a good job making the standard UI controls accessible 
Color Identifier was also featured on Gizmodo, Cult of Mac, Geek.com, and GeekDad on Wired.
“Best App Ever” -NPR
“How wonderful! This could also help me avoid arguments with my wife about what color something is. I have such a restricted color vocabulary.” -Brumley Gap
“This is great news. I need to tell my son about this since he is color blind.” -Anonymous
Follow-up broadcast by Austin Seraphin (audio)
I noticed that downloads of Color Identifier experienced a sharp uptick today. If I remember to do it, I will later post graphs to show the increase.
What do you think of the attention Color Identifier is getting? Have you tried the app? What suggestions do you have? (Due to all the new attention, I’m definitely going to update the app soon!)
Amazing app but for blind people how will they know what the obscure names refer to? Is there any way to make it just identify basic colors? Thanks!
Dear Frank,
Thank you very much for your comment, your request will be granted in the update of ColorID, which will be release very soon.
Hi! Any chance of creating this app on Android? I’m blind and would love to experience it.
I hope you leave the interesting names in as well as just giving an option for standard color names. ’cause it helps imagine.
Dear Rusty,
Please stay tune for the release of Color ID on Android.
Color ID is now available on iOS 4 with simple color option (please search for “Color ID” and download the new app)
I love the app. it gives me a glimpse of the colors I have in my room. Wow. I never imagined this. It has the simple color option and it’s free too. Why spend hundreds of dollars on a color identifier from independent living aids when you can get an iphone app that does the same? Sometimes it can be little bit inaccurate but at least i don’t have to keep asking mom for the color of the shirt. I have braille labels on my shirts and it identified the different shades of color other than the color White. i am blown off by this. Initially i wanted to buy a color identifier for my clothes but damn those things cost like at least $200-400 if you want to get one that does other things which one of my blind friends has. She said she spent like $300 on this color identifier that also reads her dollar bills and records short voice memos. Sometimes she gets so frustrated because the machine doesn’t identify bills that are too warn out and sometimes the color identifier is not as accurate. Why spend that when you can get a money reader app for the iphone that costs $2? It does the same thing and i don’t have to put too much money down the drain for something that sometimes doesn’t work half the time. I am not against any company, but there sure is a lot of competition with blindness specific products especially since the iphone is taking over.
one thing i do hope is that in the next update, the olors should be more acurate especially if i have to point to my clothes. There should be an option where the app can detect the location where you are pointing and then give the color. Maybe if it clicks and beeps once you point to the right location. another thing, the color identifier should give the specific color of the shirt or anything you point to without continuously giving the names to other colors. I’m sure there will be some improvements whithin the next updates.
Please include a setting where you can have colour names such as Purple, Pink, Brown, Orange, Green, Blue, Yellow, Red, Blue/Green, Black, White, Grey and the various intensity very light, light, very dark and dark.
Check out ColorPixel:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/colorpixel/id465617939?mt=8
It has swappable palettes