
Approximately one in 20 people suffer from colour blindness, a condition that makes the world a duller place to look at.

While many sufferers are aware if they have a significant form of the condition, some may not realise their colour perception isn't particularly good.

A firm called EnChroma - that makes glasses designed to give the colour blind 'normal' vision - has created an online test to reveal whether a person is able to see the world in all the colours available to to the human eye.

Click here to take the test

A firm called EnChroma makes glasses designed to help the colour blind see objects as if they have normal vision, and it has designed an online test to reveal how you view the world. To complete the test, users have to identify a coloured number on a different coloured, circular background. A keypad is used to select the number, or they can choose to select 'Unsure' or 'Nothing'

To complete the test, users must identify a coloured number on a different coloured, circular background. A keypad to the right of the circle is used to select the number, or they can choose to select 'Unsure' or 'Nothing'.

Hitting these keys automatically generates the next number, and the colours and contrast differ as the test continues while a bar along the top of the screen tracks the user's progress.

TYPES OF COLOUR BLINDESS Protanopia Protanopes are more likely to confuse: 1. Black with many shades of red 2. Dark brown with dark green, dark orange and dark red 2. Some blues with some reds, purples and dark pinks 3. Mid-greens with some oranges Deuteranopia Deuteranopes are more likely to confuse: 1. Mid-reds with mid-greens 2. Blue-greens with grey and mid-pinks 3. Bright greens with yellows 4. Pale pinks with light grey Tritanopia Tritanopes are more likely to confuse: 1. Light blues with greys 2. Dark purples with black 3. Mid-greens with blues 4. Oranges with reds Source: Colour Blindness Awareness Advertisement

At the end of the test the user is either told they have normal vision, or which form of colour blindness they suffer from.

EnChroma's online test is based on the original Ishihara color blindness test which uses 38 'Ishihara Plates' to assess how a person sees colours but also how these colours are seen in relation to others.

Named after its Japanese inventor Dr Shinobu Ishihara, it has been used to identify colour vision deficiencies since they were first published in 1917.

There are three kinds of colour blindness known as protanopia, dueteranopia and tritanopia.

People with protanopia lack the long-wavelength sensitive retinal cones needed to recognise and distinguish between colours in the green, yellow and red spectrum.

It affects between 1 per cent and 5 per cent of males and approximately 0.1 per cent of females.

Dueteranopia affects the same part of the spectrum, but sufferers lack medium-wavelength retinal cones meaning the differences can be more pronounced.

It is experienced by a similar number of people to protanopia.

Meanwhile, people with colour blindness that affects the short-wavelength cone system have what's known as tritanopia.

This is the rarest kind - affecting 0.003 per cent of males and females - and tritanopes confuse light blues with greys, purples with black, mid-greens with blues and oranges with reds.

The effects of colour vision deficiency can be classified as mild, moderate or severe.

Figures from Colour Blindness Awareness suggest that approximately 40 per cent of colour blind pupils leaving secondary school are unaware they are colour blind, while 60 per cent of sufferers experience many problems in everyday life.

EnChroma is based in Berkeley and has designed a system called Digital Colour Boost.

This consists of frames fitted to glasses and sunglases that work using a series of precise 'cutouts' along the spectrum of light.

By removing the wavelengths of light between the primary colours, Digital Color Boost amplifies the colour signal sent to the brain and for wearers, colours appear brighter and more saturated.

People report that their colour discrimination is faster and more accurate and they are able to see more vibrant colours when wearing the glasses.

They are more likely to notice objects that are differentiated against a background based on colour, such as a flower against background of leaves, whereas without the lens those objects would have been overlooked.

When people with normal colour vision wear the EnChroma Cx glasses, they also see a 'colour boost' effect: colours appear to 'pop' with a 'super-ordinary vibrance'.

The colours and contrast differ as the test continues (pictured). People with protanopia lack long-wavelength sensitive retinal cones to distinguish between the green, yellow and red spectrum. Dueteranopia affects the same part of the spectrum, but sufferers lack medium-wavelength retinal cones. Meanwhile, tritanopes confuse light blues with greys, purples with black and mid-greens with blues

There is also a colour blindness simulator, designed by a firm called etre that lets people see how images appear to people with all three types of colour blindness. This image shows the colours and brightness of Times Square in New York to someone with normal vision

The left image shows how the same scene appears to people with protanopia, the centre image is similar and shows how dueteranopes see the picture. The right-hand image is how someone with tritanopia sees Times Square

This collection of images shows a selection of the flags of the world and how they appear to a person with normal colour vision (left), a person with protanopia and dueteranopia (centre) and tritanopia (right)

An animation spotted by IFL Science reveals how coloured pencils appear to people with normal vision and along the colour blindness scale.

Andrew Cocks, who suffers from tritanopia, told MailOnline he sees predominantly brown across the range of pencils but the blue pencils on the right have very little contrast and appear as various shades of grey.

There is also a colour blindness simulator, designed by a firm called etre that lets people see how images appear to people with all three types of colour blindness.

An animation (above) spotted by IFL Science reveals how coloured pencils appear to people with normal vision and along the colour blindness scale. Andrew Cocks, who suffers from tritanopia, told MailOnline he sees predominantly brown across the range of pencils but the blue pencils on the right have very little contrast and appear as various shades of grey

This is a topography image of Elysium Mons, a volcano on Mars located in the volcanic province Elysium. The left-hand image is the original. The centre image is how it appears to protanopes, and the right is how it appears to tritanopes

The same effect for this photo is shown, using the etre tool (normal vision left, protoanopia centre and tritanopia right). Figures from Colour Blindness Awareness suggest that approximately 40% of colour blind pupils leaving secondary school are unaware they are colour blind, while 60% of sufferers experience many problems in everyday life

The free version lets users compare low-resolution images that are 100kb or smaller and have a maximum of 1,000 by 1,000 pixels. Alternatively people can pay a pound to upload higher resolution images or websites.

'Many images and resources on the web are coloured in such a way that it's difficult for users with vision deficiencies to comprehend them,' explained etre.