Human Eyes as Digital Cameras? 45
Mad Dog Kenrod asks: "A recent ad campaign for a digital camera had the slogan (something like) 'imagine being able to take a picture from your head and show it to people' - it was basically showcasing how small the camera was. This got me thinking: most people simply want to 'snap what they see'. Given that the human eye already has a very workable lens, and a retina which (I assume) is similar in technology to a digital camera, how feasible would it be to 'tap into' the optic nerve (not the brain, because by then the 'image' is probably something else entirely) and turn the signals from all those rods and cones into pixels?"
"Given we can do C.A.T. scans, would it even be feasible to do this from outside the head (say, with sufficient miniaturization, from the arm of your glasses)?
Of course, you would lack other things like zooms and filters and even an ability to 'frame' the picture (and there'd be problems for people with eye disease), but I propose that, for the majority of us who just want to quickly 'snap what we see' this would make for the smallest, lightest camera possible.
I know nothing about what would be involved in making this happen, so would be interested in people's thoughts."
Re:Have to say it... (Score:1)
April trolls day (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:April trolls day (Score:1)
I've always thought of 1/4 as "one fourth" or January 4th, depending on the context...
Re:April trolls day (Score:1)
Hmm... I assume from the above that you suffer from an "American education"?
Most of the world uses D/M/Y, but clearly that is not acceptable for you I guess.
Re:April trolls day (Score:1)
Where it matters, I write the date unambiguously. For example, YYYY-MMM-DD, where MMM is a 3-character abbreviation.
Re:April trolls day (Score:1)
Y/M/D
It lists items alphabetically, in the right date order.
eventualy.. (Score:1)
But much sooner then that, perhaps real soon if not already, you could simply build a digital camera into, say, a pair of sunglasses...
Not another Ask Slashdot... (Score:1, Troll)
God I hate slashdot!
Nearly Impossible (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Nearly Impossible (Score:1)
Re:Nearly Impossible (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd suggest that you'd be better off letting the brain do most of the processing and take output from the visual cortex. I believe there has been some succ
Re:Nearly Impossible (Score:1)
It would probably be easier to monitor the activity in the visual portion of the brain and translate the activity into an image then trying to understand the mess of nerves in the optic nerve bundle.
Re:Nearly Impossible (Score:2)
Daniel
Already being worked on (link included) (Score:4, Informative)
link: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/99leg
Re:Already being worked on (link included) (Score:2)
Here's a question, though. When you dream, do the images that you're dreaming go through the thalamus as well?
Re:Already being worked on (link included) (Score:1)
But if it was just me I'd probably just use a number drill (very small drill bit) and a wire-wrap tool...
(Now the Karma question - is this a Funny, Informative, Troll?
Re:Already being worked on (link included) (Score:2)
Perception (Score:4, Interesting)
The majority of what you "see" is exactly because of the post-processing your brain does, as well as your eye and optic nerve. This occurs both in the optic realm (shading, motion, etc), and because your brain applies all kinds of cognitive processes to the visual signal. It isn't simply a passive sensor like a CCD.
Re:Perception (Score:1)
Besides, slide shows from my vision would be cut short by someone yelling FOCUS!!
Re:Perception (Score:2)
God I hate that shit. speak english you maggot
Re:Perception (Score:1)
Re:Perception (Score:1)
Eye is part of the visual SYSTEM (Score:2)
No.
What you see is the result of a whole lot of post-processing by a supercomputer called 'your brain'. The input from the optic nerve is quite inferior to the image you see.
For instance, your digital camera would have a blind spot [colostate.edu] in every picture. It's also upside down, and probably non-uniform in its curvature.
Re:Eye is part of the visual SYSTEM (Score:1)
not there yet (Score:1)
Here you can see where they were on this not so long ago
Short version: They hooked up 177 halfway down a cat's optic path and were able to create images/movies from the info they recieved. One Problem is how hard it is to connect to all the nerves without disrupting their message. the other problem is the image info changes as it moves from the eye to the brain, so it gets processed as it travels. They were only able to interpret the image information at a certain spot on the way to the brain.
[harvard.edu]
You can
Pr0n (Score:1)
The eye is an engineers worst nightmare. (Score:1)
Mod parent up (Score:2)
Re:The eye is an engineers worst nightmare. (Score:1)
Implement a nueral network to transform these disorderly impulses into a meaningfull image.
Pincushion problem (Score:1)
But let's assume you did it somehow (nanotech, maybe -- everyone knows nanotech can do ANY magic desired). The eye isn't really like a digital cam
It's all relative (Score:1)
In other words, each picture taken off the optic nerve would be relative to the person who saw it.
We learn to associate a color with the information we get, but one person might see "red" when a cone is active, another might see "red" when a rod is active.
If you could tap into the light coming direclty into the eye, maybe, but that is a hardware mod, not a si
Re:It's all relative (Score:2)
Re:It's all relative (Score:1)
I've been pondering about this for realy some time. I don't know if i'm making myself clear. But in other words, could it be that "my" red = "your" green or other color??
Re:It's all relative (Score:2)
bionic eyes (Score:2, Funny)
Here... (Score:2)
Why don't you lay down right here and I'll give it a try? *pulling out a scapel*
EyeglassCam (Score:1)
Personally... (Score:1)
(Of course, doing it with a camera behind some with sunglasses would be a good start.)
And I'm sure there'd be significant applications in the medical and military fields. I've been thinking how cool this would be for years...
68K.
Surely only of limited use... (Score:2)
Anyhow, technology to do this thru glasses will be needed to enable all the various fabulous things we will do once glasses become a favoured ocmputer interface; HUD overlays, for example, will gain tremendously from knowing what it is you are seeing.
As Scott Adams puts it, we all want
But wait. There's more. =) (Score:1)