Question Author
Thanks for the answers.
As mentioned earlier, I watched A LOT of Youtube clips, many of which featured people "seeing color for the first time" often bursting into tears in the process. I was skeptical, having done my homework and went into the purchase fully knowing that they are not a "cure" just an aid.
As I expected when I put them on for the first time, the effect was not nearly as extreme as some of the new users implied.
BUT* After some time, things started to glow and come to life, reds looked redder and blues looked bluer and ...separation! OMG the separation of colours is fantastic. It took me a few days of wearing them for the effect to maximise and now I rarely leave the house without them on if it's reasonably bright. One of the first things I noticed when walking into town was the green of traffic lights!! I am used to seeing them as a sort of muddy white, but with the glasses on I can clearly see the colour that they actually are.
This is how they work:
First of all, you go to their website and take a 10 minute long colour deficiency test to see what type of colour deficiency you have. In my case it was "moderate deuteranomoly" in the green/red area which means I have a tough time telling the difference between blue and purple or green and brown.
*Now the technical bit*:
With normal colour vision, there are three main wavelength patterns: red, green and blue but the fade out points between them are very distinct. With my type of colour deficiency, there is an overlap of these wavelengths and that is what causes the confusion.
The glasses contain a tint that is set to a specific colour to effectively cancel out those overlapping points.
Conclusion: they definitely work and are fantastic, not sure about $500 worth of fantastic but still ...they're keepers for sure.
*"But what? Everyone I know has a big BUT... Come on, Simone, let's talk about *your* big but" (Pee Wee's Big Adventure)