http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/scientist-accidentally-developed-sunglasses-that-could-correct-color-blindness-180954456/?no-ist
Color counts when it comes to reading railroad signals. If this technology advances, would lenses correcting for color blindness be treated the same as for clarity of vision when hiring operating crews?
That is a very interesting question, as the answer hinges not so much upon whether the 'product' allows reliable differentiation of signal aspect colors under regular eye-test conditions as it does upon whether conditions in the field -- looking 'into the sun' or under fog conditions, for example -- might cause the accommodation to fail. Despite the fancy language used on the EnChroma Web site, all they do is provide notch filtering at a couple of wavelength ranges to allow better differentiation by the cones in the eye. How this translates into clean distinction of 'red' vs 'green' (the safety aspect) in railroad conditions remains to be established.
That would at least indicate to me that some field testing of employee candidates using EnChroma 'compliant' lenses ought to be conducted under controlled conditions before a hiring decision is finalized .... and that not all color-blind people may be helped adequately enough to assure safety.
As a former Air Force QC type, I'd want to see a LOT more than a flashy, "Hey, here's a new product," announcement. Exhaustive field tests with a variety of subjects under every possible condition are just openers.
Over the course of a long life I've seen a lot of ruffles and flourishes announcements of new products and processes. A few years later, when there should have been widespread acceptance, a question would frequently be answered with a terse, "D!!n thing didn't work."
Get back to me when this new tech has been exhaustively tested, and accepted by the people who have to work with it. I may be pleasantly surprised - or unpleasantly unsurprised.
Chuck
What happens at night, when one of the crew is wearing sunglasses?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
I fully agree that it's too early to jump into this thing with both feet. The item says they are working on an indoor version, and it also says it can help 80% of patients, which means 20% are left out. If they are not totally effective for the 80% who can use them, then they may not be a solution for the railroad industry.
I'm 69 years old and have had red-green color blindness my whole life. It meant I couldn't get an operating job with a railroad, so I worked onboard the trains as an OBS attendant. Could this have changed my life? I don't know, and there's no point dwelling on what might have been, now that I've retired. I made the most of the opportunities I had, and I (mostly) enjoyed my railroad career.
However, my life isn't over yet, and I'd love to have the opportunity to try these things. Whether they will help a color blind person sufficiently to allow him/her to have an operating job or not is beside the point in my case, and we may not have that answer soon.
I'd like to see the TRUE colors of SAL's original streamliners for the first time in my life, and these specs could make it happen.
Tom
I can't see the railroads going for this as long as there's a good pool of job applicants that DON'T need correction for color blindness.
In the PTC-world-to-come will colour blindness matter?
Editor Emeritus, This Week at Amtrak
D.Carleton In the PTC-world-to-come will colour blindness matter?
I was going to ask the same thing!
Firelock76 I can't see the railroads going for this as long as there's a good pool of job applicants that DON'T need correction for color blindness.
Why not? If the glasses worked and you can pass the ishihara test then all should be good. Now the PTC screens will have colors on them for different aspects. And swtich targets are colored. So even if there aren't any more lineside signals, seeing colors may still play a part.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
I'd be a little nervous, especially if the guy/gal wasn't wearing glasses full time already. (Lots of problems with new trackmen/ trainmen getting them to keep those safety on at all times.) I would hope AAR and FRA conduct rigorous tests before the "technology" is blessed-off on.
(For the same reason, I wouldn't put a whole lot of faith in PTC for a while - there is gonna be issues/ bugz that haven't been dealt with yet. Kinda like truckers and others with bridges and wrong turns. I saw where Cline Ave in Gary IN got one today....drove right of a partially demo-ed bridge protected by k-rail, barrels and barricades.)
My nephew is red-green color blins and could not find a day-glow orange ball on the grass a few feet from him.
Set him in front of a black and white TV set and he can identify all of the colors correctly.
Oh well, signals will soon be a thing of the past. Trains will all be run automatically with only an atendant on board as a sop to public perceptions.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
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BroadwayLion Oh well, signals will soon be a thing of the past. Trains will all be run automatically with only an atendant on board as a sop to public perceptions. ROAR
Eventually, maybe. The point where they can remove signals is a ways out there. I don't expect to see it before I retire.
It seems the public perception (and maybe those of congress and some regulators) of what PTC can do is more of what PTC eventually will be capable of. Not what the first version being deployed is actually capable of delivering.
Also remember that not every line, not even every main line, will have PTC. They will still be operated the "old fasioned way." The busier lines that don't have to have it may eventually get PTC, but I would bet that won't be for quite a while.
I think most new-hires will have to be able to "read" wayside signals for the forseeable future.
Jeff
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