Scientists discover new colour ‘Olo’ no one has seen before

New York: Researchers have discovered a new colour that humans have not seen before.

The findings published in journal Science Advances on Friday described the colour as something similar to a peacock blue or teal, NDTV reported.

Calling the new colour 'olo', the researchers claim that only five people have seen it as it is ‘off-the-charts’ due to the level of saturation in it.

To experience the colour, the retina of a person has to be manipulated through firing laser pulses into the eyes, thus pushing the perception beyond its natural limits, according to the Guardian.

Ren Ng, who is an electrical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, said that the researchers knew from the beginning it would be an unprecedented colour signal, adding ‘but we didn't know what the brain would do with it. It was jaw-dropping. It's incredibly saturated’.

Sharing an image of a turquoise square, the researchers said the image, despite providing a sense of the colour, does not fully represent the richness of the colour they experienced.

Austin Roorda, a vision scientist working with the team, said: ‘There is no way to convey that colour in an article or on a monitor. The whole point is that this is not the colour we see, it's just not. The colour we see is a version of it, but it absolutely pales by comparison with the experience of olo.’

When light falls on the colour-sensitive cells in the retina called cones, we can distinguish millions of shades.

The researchers made it clear that humans would not be able to see the new colour in their everyday life.