Color Their World

[stoutfellow]

A while back, talking about one of Buster's misadventures, I said something about a dog treat being similar in color to my skin. Now, though, I'm wondering about that.

The set of all colors - all wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum - is infinite-dimensional. The colors we (most of us) are able to perceive make up a three-dimensional projection of that set - three, because of the three types of cone cells in our eyes.

It has recently been verified that dogs are dichromats, with two types of cone cells, and hence they perceive a two-dimensional projection. If that projection is itself, more or less, a projection of ours, then colors that look alike to us will also look alike to them; but if not, then not. This would, I suppose, depend on the frequencies which cone cells are most responsive to; if canine cone cells peak at or near the peak frequencies of two of our cone types, then they can't distinguish what we can't distinguish.

Does anyone know whether this is true? The Wikipedia article simply says that most non-primate mammals are red-green color-blind, but it's not obvious to me that resolves my question.

Comments

[conuly]

https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/see-what-the-world-looks-like-to-a-dog/

[stoutfellow]

Hmm. Thank you, that was informative. On further reflection, it seems to me that the answer to my initial question is more complicated than I thought; the story about the colorblind WWII bombardier who was not deceived by camouflage suggests that something more than mere projection is involved. Must think about that. (But, from the link, I suspect that Buster genuinely couldn't see the broken treat against my skin.)