Camera Access Required

This feature uses your camera for real-time color blindness simulation. No video is recorded, transmitted, or stored. All processing happens locally in your browser.

Live Webcam Color Blindness Simulation

See the world in real time as someone with color vision deficiency would. Everything runs locally in your browser — no video is recorded, uploaded, or stored.

vision types

Real-time

live camera

On-device

video never leaves

Free

no sign-up

Live simulation — camera off

Camera is off

Start the webcam to preview your live feed side by side with a color-blind simulation. You'll be asked to allow camera permissions.

How the live simulation works

When you start the camera, the page asks your browser for access to the video feed through the standard getUserMediaAPI. Once you allow it, the live video is handed to a hidden HTML canvas. For every frame the camera produces — dozens per second — the tool copies the pixels onto that canvas, walks through them one at a time, and rewrites each pixel's red, green, and blue values using a matrix that models how a specific type of color vision deficiency changes the signal from the eye's cone cells. The rewritten frame is drawn to the visible canvas next to your untouched feed.

Because that whole cycle repeats on every frame, the effect tracks your movement. Turn your head, pick up an object, or walk to another room and the simulated view updates with you. You are, in effect, holding a color-vision-deficiency filter up to the world and looking through it as things move. Switching the vision type in the panel swaps the matrix on the next frame, so you can compare protanopia against deuteranopia against a grayscale view without stopping the camera.

The color math is the same per-pixel transform used by our static image simulator. The only difference is that here it runs against a moving source instead of a single photo. Frame rate depends on your hardware; a recent phone or laptop keeps up smoothly, while an older or busy device may show a little lag as it processes each frame.

What live view is good for that a photo isn't

A static simulator is great for screens and files, but plenty of color decisions happen off the screen. A live camera lets you point the filter at real, physical things and see them shift as you handle them:

Product packaging and printed labels — check whether a red “spicy” flag or a green “organic” seal still reads once color is the only cue.
Wiring, resistors, and status LEDs, where red and green are used constantly and are exactly the pair that collapses for most color-blind people.
Medicine bottles and pill colors, where telling two doses apart by color alone is a real safety concern.
Food ripeness — a red versus green apple, a browning banana, the sear on cooked meat.
Printed maps, transit diagrams, and wayfinding signs with color-coded routes or zones.
Walking a physical space — a store aisle, a lab, a classroom — to spot color-only signals you'd miss on a flat mockup.

It is also one of the fastest ways to build empathy. In a design review, an accessibility workshop, or a classroom, handing someone a live feed of the room in deuteranopia lands harder than any chart. People understand the point in a few seconds, and they remember it — and it makes concrete just how color blindness affects daily life.

The nine vision types you can switch between

Color blindness is a range, not a single condition. It runs from a mild shift in one cone type to the near-total absence of color. This tool covers all nine so you can preview the cases your audience actually lives with.

Red-green types (by far the most common)

Deuteranomaly — the most common form of all. The green-sensitive (M) cones are shifted rather than missing, which weakens red-green separation without erasing it.
Deuteranopia — the M cones don't work, so reds and greens run together.
Protanomaly — reduced sensitivity to red light; reds look darker and can drift toward gray.
Protanopia — no working long-wavelength (L) cones; red and green are hard to separate and reds appear dim.

Blue-yellow types (rare)

Tritanomaly — reduced blue sensitivity, so blues and yellows are harder to tell apart.
Tritanopia — no working short-wavelength (S) cones; blue and yellow are confused. Unlike the red-green types, it affects men and women about equally.

Little or no color vision (very rare)

Achromatopsia — essentially no color vision; the feed appears in shades of gray.
Blue cone monochromacy — only the S cones function, leaving very limited color and often reduced sharpness.
Rod monochromacy — a grayscale view, the same practical result as achromatopsia.

Your camera feed stays on your device

The video never leaves your machine. The frames are captured, transformed, and drawn back to the screen entirely inside your browser. Nothing is recorded, uploaded, or sent to a server, and there is no account or login involved. When you press stop, or close the tab, the camera releases and no copy of the feed remains.

Your browser asks for camera permission the first time, and you stay in control of it. You can deny it, allow it just for this visit, or revoke it later from the browser's site settings or the camera icon in the address bar. The only frame that ever leaves the page is one you choose to save yourself with the snapshot button, and that download goes to your own device.

Device and browser support

It runs in current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on both desktop and mobile. Two things have to be true for the camera to start: the page must be served over HTTPS (browsers block camera access on insecure connections), and the device needs a working camera the browser can reach. On a phone you'll usually get the front camera by default, which is convenient for pointing at yourself or flipping to face a subject.

Smoothness comes down to your hardware, because every frame is processed pixel by pixel. A modern phone or laptop handles it comfortably. On older devices, or when the browser is busy with other tabs, you may notice the simulated view running a step behind. If the camera won't start at all, check that no other app is already using it and that the browser has permission.

How accurate is it, and what it can't do

This is an approximation, not a literal recreation of anyone's eyesight. The models are most dependable for the dichromacy types — protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia — where a whole cone type is absent. The milder “anomalous” forms (protanomaly, deuteranomaly, tritanomaly) vary a lot from person to person, so read those as a reasonable middle ground rather than an exact match to any one individual.

A live camera adds two extra sources of drift that a saved image doesn't have. Your camera does its own color processing — white balance, auto-exposure, and saturation are all applied before the tool ever sees a frame — so two cameras pointed at the same object can start from different colors. And the lighting in the room matters: warm lamplight, cool daylight, and dim indoor light each shift what the camera captures and therefore what the simulation shows.

Treat it as a design and education tool, not a medical one. It can't diagnose color blindness in you or anyone else. If you want to check your own color vision, take a color blindness test and, if anything seems off, see an eye-care professional.

Example: Webcam Color Blindness Simulation

Webcam Normal Vision Example — Normal Vision

Webcam Protanopia Simulation Example — Protanopia Simulation

Frequently asked questions

Why does it need my camera?

The whole point is to filter a live view, so the tool needs the camera feed to work with. Your browser asks for permission the first time, and you can allow it, deny it, or revoke it later from the browser's site settings. Without camera access there's nothing to simulate.

Does it record or upload my video?

No. Frames are captured, transformed, and drawn back to the screen entirely in your browser. Nothing is recorded, uploaded, or sent to a server. The only image that leaves the page is one you deliberately save with the snapshot button, and that download stays on your device.

Which browsers does it work in?

Current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on desktop and mobile. The page has to be served over HTTPS, since browsers block camera access on insecure connections, and your device needs a camera the browser can reach.

Can I use it on my phone?

Yes. It runs in mobile browsers and usually opens the front camera by default. Performance depends on the phone — a recent model keeps up smoothly, while an older one may show a slight delay as it processes each frame.

Why isn't the simulation exact?

It's an approximation. The models are most reliable for the dichromacy types, where a whole cone type is missing, and looser for the milder 'anomalous' types. On top of that, your camera's own color processing and the room's lighting both shift what you see. It's a design and education tool, not a medical test.