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