Depending on the source the English language has thirty to forty something phonetic sounds. What if each was assigned a color. The range of colors could be increased by using fluorescence or maybe sounds that rarely occur together can share a color.I'm guessing a highway sign for instance could be read allot sooner if it was written in alphahue. I also wonder what it would be like to read a book. If you were taught this from the beginning would it make you a faster reader? I suspect learning it later would be more of a distraction for reading, and of course color blindness would be a problem too.-- pydor, Sep 27 2006 The synesthesia experience. http://web.mit.edu/.../www/colordemo.html [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 27 2006] Born on a Blue Day http://www.optimnem.co.uk/book.php [po, Sep 27 2006] warning signs are mostly triangular etc http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/signs05.htm [po, Sep 27 2006] Some of us poor saps already do this. [link]-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 27 2006 I was thinking the color would be the same regardless of the spelling. (E.g., "put" ut in say green "but" ut in blue "soot" oot in green ect.-- pydor, Sep 27 2006 "I'm guessing a highway sign for instance could be read allot sooner if it was written in alphahue" - Sorry, but I doubt it. Our eyes perceive relative brightness far better than hue. Here's a trick. Write a large sign on paper, using different colours for the letters. Then try reading it at a distance. You'll read the text easily (as long as the colours chosen are dark/light compared to the background), but have no idea what letter is what colour, until you close in to a relatively short distance. At range, (where you can barely make out the letters), you probably can't tell that the letters are different colours, maybe some just seem darker/lighter.
interesting idea, possibly useful in certain circumstances, but quite impractical when viewed in less-than-perfect conditions.-- Custardguts, Sep 27 2006 I think I'm better off with symbols. I think the human brain is wired to better discriminate between symbols than colours. I'd be interested to see how you get on, if you try this, pydor.-- st3f, Sep 27 2006 The symbols are still there the colors add another bit of information and a group of letters usually will equal one sound leading to a larger color blotch. This idea goes back to when i was a kid I was relatively blind (20-300) and didn't know it , I could usually tell who people were from much farther away than my friends that could see by the clothes/jackets they wore and how they walked.-- pydor, Sep 27 2006 If you wanted to talk in a different accent, you'd simply don a pair of sunglasses - it would make visits to locations noted for their dialects a simple matter of packing the correct colour eyewear.
Plus, reading by candlelight would always tend towards sounding Welsh.-- zen_tom, Sep 27 2006 why dont we use specific shapes and colors for a particular type of road sign so they can be recognized from a distance. lets try big red qctagons for stop signs, and maybe yellow triangles for yeild.
or did i read this wrong and you're talking about highway exit signs? if thats the case. what [custardguts] said.
I do like the idea though. you may want to see if it helps with learning disabled children or stroke victims. it might help someone whos shape precieving ability is limited, but color preception is not.-- bleh, Sep 27 2006 [pydor] I was also a blind child (undiagnosed) until about age twelve. I recognized people by voice. I still find it easier to distinguish voices than faces.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 28 2006 Linkage please phlish, what are these NATO thingies of which you speak?-- zen_tom, Sep 28 2006 Galbinus_Caeli, //blind child (undiagnosed) until about age twelve//. I can't help thinking that they must have been blind not to notice.-- Ling, Sep 28 2006 [Ling] A couple factors lead into that. First a pediatric opthamalogist had assured my parents that my eyes were fine and did not need rechecking until age eighteen. Second, I did not realize that anything was wrong, did not know that you were supposed to be able to read the blackboard, see birds, clouds and stars. And third I was very bright but thought I wasn't, so I tried very hard to do what others around me were doing so easily. I faked eye exams in school because I did not know what was going on so I just gave the same answers as the kids in front of me who got positive feedback. Eventually a teacher realized that I was faking reading things off the board (Teachers say what they are writing in elementary school, I just remembered it. Jr High they start writing stuff that they do NOT say, which confused the hell out of me.) Anyway, glasses made me all better, 20/15 corrected vision to this day.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 28 2006 Ah, I guess it makes sense now.-- Ling, Sep 28 2006 sorta.-- po, Sep 28 2006 Galbinus, that's nearly identical to my experience. I memorised the eye chart and thought i was pulling something off. I suspect this has caused actual brain changes as my intake of information is much higher than most from a lecture, I don't take notes I just listen. I was once actually singled out by a professor for not writing things down. I usually highlight the book when i study later, I wonder if there are more people who went through this .By the way when you got your glasses wasn't it amazing? I felt like I had x-ray vision.-- pydor, Sep 28 2006 Amazing is barely the word for it. Hard to describe to anyone who has not seen it. Imagine spending your entire life watching the world through a shower door. You can see colors and movement, but no detail. Nothing has edges, just blending areas of color. Shapes are not associated with things, they are abstract properties. The sky is blue during the day, dark gray at night, each with a bright area. A lawn is a green area. A road is a grey one.
Then one day grass is blades. Stars appear in the sky. Trees have leaves, sidewalks have cracks, and the moon is a ball of stone in the sky. There is no way someone who has not experienced it can completly understand.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 29 2006 random, halfbakery