How would computer monitors work if we could sense the frequency of light?

Human's abilities to perceive light is quite limited. Essentially, we have three type of light sensors that each give a linear signal, and if two different light sources give the same signals they will look the same. This is convenient for monitor makers though, since then computer monitors do not to be able to produce any kind of light, just a representative sample.

What if our eyes where different though. What if when we saw light, we can see all the frequencies it contained (in the same visible light spectrum as we do now), and at what intensity.*

Is there a way that we could still make computer monitors look realistic (i.e. have the ability to produce any combination of light frequencies from each pixel)? Or would any possible computer monitor necessarily look "black and white (and red and blue and ...)" to us?

*I have a couple of ideas as to how this could work. The one way would be to associate each frequency with a slower frequency, (that the brain can handle), and to have the cone convert light waves into these slower neural waves. The other idea is to again have only one type of cone, but allow the brain to change what frequency it detects. The brain would subconsciously sweep the visual spectrum, the same way it moves eyes subconsciously to see more.

posted about 6 years ago

PyRulez‭

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