UC student creates fashion app for people with color blindness

Engineering student's Color Match warns of discordant color combinations

Local 12 highlighted a new app developed by a computer science student at the University of Cincinnati that takes the guesswork out of getting dressed for people who are color blind.

The Color Match app uses an algorithm created by Eric Langhorne, a student in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science who is red-green color blind.

Eric Langhorne gestures while talking.

Eric Langhorne studies computer science in UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science. Photo/Michael Miller

“I stop at yellow flashing lights sometimes because I’m not sure if it’s red,” Langhorne told Local 12 reporter Marella Porter.

As a student, he can have difficulty in distinguishing colors in some pie charts and bar graphs in research papers. Likewise, when he gets ready for the day, he is not always sure if the clothes he is wearing have complementary or conflicting colors.

“I started wearing more neutral colors,” he said.

Langhorne created an app to warn if an outfit’s colors are conflicting instead of complementary. While he can't distinguish all colors himself, the app can using math to identify color relationships.

Users of Color Match can use their phone cameras to scan clothes laid out on a bed, take a selfie or pull up a photo in their library and the app automatically tells whether or not the colors match. The Color Match app is available for free now in the Apple store.

Featured image at top: UC student Eric Langhorne talks to Local 12 reporter Marella Porter about his new Color Match app. Photo/Michael Miller

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