Category: Vision
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See your face… Move your hand… Break the mirror…
Given the limited capacity of our attention, we only process a small amount of the sights, sounds, and sensations that reach our senses at any given moment. Research suggests that certain stimuli – specifically, your own face – can influence how you respond without you being aware of it. In an experiment, participants looked at…
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Seeing better. Through not seeing. Descartes and the wisdom of Silenus…
Visual acuity is normally thought to be dictated by the shape and condition of the eye but these new findings suggest that it may also be influenced by perceptual processes in the brain. “We discovered that visual acuity – the ability to see fine detail – can be enhanced by an illusion known as the…
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Filling in the gaps (of the blind spot). Believing (what is not there). Lies. Truth.
To make sense of the world, humans and animals need to combine information from multiple sources. This is usually done according to how reliable each piece of information is. For example, to know when to cross the street, we usually rely more on what we see than what we hear – but this can change…
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Seeing via an app… Not seeing…
A mobile phone application from Microsoft is designed to help people with color blindness see the world a little bit more clearly. Color Binoculars, created by two Microsoft software engineers (one of whom is colorblind), applies a filter to incoming images, changing the colors on the screen to ones that are easier to distinguish. Looking…
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Asymmetries. Sensing. Motionless.
“Did something move over there?” Everyone has experienced this situation. One is looking towards a sound source, but with the best will in the world, one cannot detect an object. Only its sudden movement, even if minimal, allows its immediate perception. Scientists at the Ruhr-University Bochum have investigated this phenomenon and show for the first…
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