When we look at an object, we not only see the object but also many other things. For instance, if I am looking at my mobile screen, I can still see my hand, the window in front and a lot of things. But my main focus is on the mobile screen. The vision by which you are able to see your mobile phone with focus is called as the central vision. When we see at anything directly, we see it with our central vision.
And the hand and the window, I still see them but my eyes don't focus on it as I am seeing the screen. This vision by which I see the hand, window or the objects nearby excluding the main thing I am looking at is called as the peripheral vision.
The usual range for peripheral vision is 100 to 110°. This is how you can check yours:
- Stand in front of a wall with your arms streched in front of you.
- Stare at the wall and remember that your central vision should not leave the wall.
- Now take those arms to the side slowly.
- Check where your arms disappear exactly and that is your range of peripheral vision.
- Remember, don't look at your arms directly. Continue staring the wall and don't take your eyes off the wall.
I hope that now you know what is peripheral vision. But there is one thing. Whenever you look at the monsoon sky, and a lightning strikes somewhere, you can still look it no matter where were you looking at in the sky. Or wait! Go outside the in the balcony or near the window. Now look at a point in the sky and just stare at it. You will see that the birds moving in your peripheral vision, or the cars and the people moving, catch your attention. This is because, your peripheral vision is sensitive to motion.
Yes, the moving objects like the lightning in first case and birds, people and cars in the second case, were able to catch your attention because they were moving in your peripheral vision. The same is true for flickering of neon lights, LED screens, train departure information displays etc. catching your attention when not seen directly.
But why does it happen? Let me illustrate now. Our eyes have two types of cells. Rod cells and cone cells. Cone cells are sensitive to light and pick up colours more accurately. Whereas rod cells are motion sensitive. They capture movement very quickly. Now, the distribution of these cells throughout our eye is not equal. Near the center of our eye, there are more cone cells than rod cells. And the opposite is true of the peripheral sides. The the colour of the object you are looking at is perfectly perceived by the eye. And your peripheral vision catches motion better. That is why our peripheral vision is sensitive to motion.
Posts before October 2021 have been marked as "Old Posts". Less likely, but they might have out dated or incorrect information, ugly looking bits of code, no labels, etc. Don't get me wrong, many of these posts are top-notch and interesting too.
I thought it would be better not to delete or revamp these posts, even if they suck. The bitter truth is that old works always suck, but I take that as a positive tool to convey that I am growing. Besides there's no better way to showcase my journey without these old, messy, poorly written posts!
I thought it would be better not to delete or revamp these posts, even if they suck. The bitter truth is that old works always suck, but I take that as a positive tool to convey that I am growing. Besides there's no better way to showcase my journey without these old, messy, poorly written posts!
Old Post