Technology Connections Investigates Why You Can't Mix Brown From RGB LEDs
RGB LEDs are "actually very limited," host Alec explains, "but at the same time they are nearly limitless."
Technology Connections has published a video answering a critical question for users of NeoPixels and other RGB LED components: Why is it you can make them turn into almost any color of your choosing except brown?
"Red. Green. Blue. These three colors are almost like magic," Technology Connections' host Alec says. "They're able to fool our eyes into thinking we are seeing almost any color you can think of — and yet they can't. They're actually very limited, but at the same time they are nearly limitless. What do I mean? Well... brown."
What follows is a near-22-minute investigation into how light mixing works and what makes brown — "a color that kinda doesn't exist," Alec explains — a special case when it comes to RGB mixing. It follows on from an earlier video on the channel, the Weird World in RGB, though with a more specific focus.
While one of the demonstrations of how the eye can be fooled may not work for all — "If your display has a dynamic backlight," Alec describes, "the color of the square may in fact be changing along with the average image brightness — I underestimated how common this is so I didn't mention it!" — the video is nevertheless a great introduction to the concept of light-mixing in general and the limitations of RGB specifically.
More videos can be found on the Technology Connections YouTube channel.