Kolorami, the iPhone app that helps the blind identify color
Today I continue my rave about the iPhone...Because I used to have vision, I know what colors look like. That is, I know that white is lighter than black, what red or blue or purple look like. But what if I had been born completely blind? Even now as I acquire new clothes in my wardrobe, how do I know where the shirt belongs in the scheme of things? (I organize my clothes in ROY G. BIV order--something I did even before I lost my vision.) How do I know if my new tank top matches better with my silver or gold shoes? First, you need some fashion sense and color coordination skills already ingrained in your brain; For that, you'll have to look elsewhere. But if you can't tell what color the new tank top is, if you just can't see well enough to know if it's red or green (two colors that my washed out eyesight mixes up often), then Apple has an app just for you.Kolorami is an app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that helps the color-blind and vision-impaired identify colors. Making sure there's ample lighting for the camera to pick up the shade, hold the iPhone/iPad/Touch up to the thing you're trying to figure out--say, about a couple of inches from it. Then click on the "Determine Color" button, and within a few seconds, the app will break down the color for you: "10% brown, 90% dark brown." Ah, yes. Gold shoes it is.I've tested the app out on clothes I've had since before my vision loss so I knew not only which color it is but exactly the shade, too, just to see how accurate it is. I find that Kolorami usually gets it right in the general ballpark of the color, but it can often be off in identifying percentages of shade. E.g. the thing I tested it on earlier was really beige, so it would've been more accurate if it said, "90% light brown, 10% brown."I've also read that some people use the Color Identifier app (like my aforementioned fellow blind blogger), but I have yet to try this app out. Color Identifier (or Color ID) seems to have more versions (including one that costs $1.99 in addition to the free one) and ratings (compared to Kolorami's free one with zero ratings). Has anyone tried both? What are your thoughts? Should I switch?