C 126: Perception
Lecture 01B:
Light, Optics, & Eyes
1
Light travels in a straight line
Wavelength
400 to 700 nm
Light is an electromagnetic wave 2
Part of electromagnetic spectrum
Sunlight
3
How do we see?
Not extromission
Light doesn’t shoot from our eyes (extromission; Plato,
Empedocles).
“Marge, could you close your eyes, I'm trying to sleep”
-Homer Jay, A Fish Called Selma 4
We see objects because they
reflect light
-But light reflects in all directions from each point of
the object.
-Arrives at another surface from all points, destroying
the pattern of light and dark reflection.
5
How to recover the pattern?
Select only one direction per point
Tubes
Pinhole
Mirror
Lens
6
Tubes
7
Ibn Al-Haitham 965 - 1040
Discovers Pinhole Camera (Camera
Obscura)
8
Pinhole Optics
10
Pinhole Camera (Camera Obscura)
11
Pinhole Camera (Camera Obscura)
12
Pinhole Camera (Camera Obscura)
Aristotle
13
Abelardo Morrell
Pinhole Optics
Pinhole should make perfect images
of the world, so what’s wrong with it?
Not enough light 14
Lenses 15
Speed of light is different in
different materials
Light bends when crossing
prism
boundary between two
materials, refraction
proportional to ratio of speeds
16
Sum the light from all of these rays: much more
light than a pinhole camera! 17
18
Importance of difference in refractive index
AIR GLASS
f
1
diopters =
f
AIR GLASS
f
WATER 19
Mirrors
Brownsnout Spookfish
20
Photoreceptors:
Transduction
21
No lens, 1 receptor: single cell creatures
22
No lens, a few hundred receptors: flatworms, limpits
23
Pinhole “camera” in nature
chambered nautilus
24
The unusual scanning eye of the
copepod Copilia
2 lenses, 2 receptors, Copilia
The TV of eyes 25
500 million year old eyes
compound eye: 1 lens per receptor 26
As many as 125,000 receptors per “eye”
27
Mantis shrimp eyes
28
Compound eyes
with resolution
equal to ours
29
Simple eyes:
one lens, many
receptors
Some invertebrates
have simple eyes
30
Sea scallop:100 eyes
Squid eyes: like ours
but bigger, better
31
Human eyes
2 lenses, 260,000,000 receptors
32
Iris Bar Code 33
Importance of refractive index
Cornea has the most focusing power;
Lens is mainly used for fine tuning
34
Importance of refractive index
Cornea has the most focusing power;
Lens is mainly used for fine tuning
35
The cornea has fixed focusing power;
The lens is flexible and can adjust--HOW does it do that?
Accommodation of the lens:
36
The Retina
Photoreceptors:
Rods & Cones 37
Differences between Rods and Cones
1. Cones bigger, cone shaped
Rods smaller, rod shaped
Retina
A Rod: 38
Differences between Rods and Cones
2. 3 types of Rods
cone, 1 type
of rod;
Cones for color
39
Differences between Rods and Cones
3. Rods more sensitive to low light
(scotopic vision), Cones sensitive
to brighter light (photopic vision)
Diurnal animals, more cones Nocturnal animals, more rods
Squirrels Cats, Owls
40
Differences between Rods and Cones
4. Differentially distributed
Fovea: Densely packed receptors, cones only
Blood vessels and nerves pushed away41
Differences between Rods and Cones
4. Differentially distributed
Periphery (everywhere but fovea):
Rods predominate, blood vessels block some light
42
Differences between Rods and Cones
4. Differentially distributed
The optic disk: Where the nerves (optic nerve) leave
the eye; literally a Blind Spot. 43
Differences between Rods and Cones
4. Differentially distributed
45
Blind spot demo
(See handout in discussion section)
Blind Spot Demo
Close your left eye, fixate on the gray spot, and move the paper toward you
or away from you until the black spot disappears. When the black spot disappears,
it is falling in your blind spot.
When the black spot " disappears", why does it turn white? A process called " filling in" occurs:
Do the same demo, but this time notice the hole in the middle of the radial pattern.
46
Different functions for rods and cone
has perceptual consequences:
47
Different functions for rods and cone
has perceptual consequences:
48
Different functions for rods and cone
has perceptual consequences:
Fovea: Poor sensitivity in the dark
49
Different functions for rods and cone
has perceptual consequences:
Poor spatial resolution in periphery
50
Blood vessels block our vision!
No blood vessels on cornea or lens but
plenty of blood vessels right on retina
51
macula
retinal
vessels
plainly
visible
52
If blood vessels are in front of the
retina, why don’t we see them?
Adaptation: when no change in stimulation,
stop responding (fatigue).
The brain only cares about change.
53
If blood vessels are in front of the
retina, why don’t we see them?
Different light source will reveal shadows of
blood vessels.
54
Troxler fading
55
Adaptation : no change in stimulation causes
adaptation (fatigue) in photoreceptors (they stop
responding, causing the red and green patches to
disappear). Lower responsiveness in the regions exposed
to brighter light then creates a negative version of the
image when a blank field is viewed. 56
Entoptic phenomena
57
SUMMARY
-Light, Reflections
-Recovering the image
-Pinhole camera
-Lenses
-Eyes, Human Eye
-Photoreceptors: Rods and Cones, different functions
means different perceptions
-Retina, Fovea, Blind spot, Optic nerve
-Adaptation (blood vessels, color aftereffect)
Supershort summary:
Light->Lens->Retinal Image-> Photoreceptor Transduction -
>Optic Nerve->NEXT LECTURE 58
