This is an offshoot of the enhanced parrallax goggles. You see, I am half-blind. I got an infection in my left eye and I can hardly see anything out of it. I will have to wait till I am 18 to get a lens transplant. So I thought that if somebody was to make a periscope thingie that gave you two viewpoints into one eye. This would give me regular binocular vision. So... if someone was to hook up one of these on each eye, they would have the equivalent of 4 eyes. This could give you all-round vision, or the ability to look around corners and maybe some undiscovered property of binocular vision!
-- salmon, May 10 2001

Might your brain ultimately adapt to using the two halves of your in-use retina like the two retinas it had before? I don't know. I've seen brains do amazing stunts with manipulated vision (like adapt to seeing things upside-down), but this two-into-one trick violates biological architecture more than upside-down seeing does.

(Alternatively to using halves, you might be able to swap one-eyed color for two-eyed black and white, similar to old 3D movies.)
-- jutta, May 10 2001


I don't know whether the idea would work or not, though I agree with jutta about the adaptability of the brain. But regardless of it's practicality, the Borg look might become quite fashionable.
-- DrBob, May 10 2001


I sort of imagined that if it didn't work your brain would explode but your explanation is good too.
-- salmon, May 12 2001


I agree with Mephista [Don't let the nay-saying turkeys get you down.] How do you think napkin rings got invented? And still no one has decided what to do with them when you are finished "using" them
-- bobzaguy, May 12 2001


nay say the naysayers
-- technobadger, May 12 2001


[This could give you all-around vision] Already baked in the form of novelty spy sunglasses. For anyone who hasn't seen them, they have large, flat lenses, which are half-silvered at the periphery, the result being a kind of rearview mirror. I wore a pair for two years. Not exactly fashionable (yet), but a lot of fun.
-- nick_n_uit, May 13 2001


British Scientists have now found a way to connect a camera up to the optical nerve.

What the user sees is still very basic only a few hundered Black and White Pixels in total, (that was when I last heard about it 6 months ago) but theoretically they expect to be able to increase that significantly.

While it could never restore perfect sight, it allows enough of an image to help a blind person perform basic tasks. (Like making coffee and walking around without bumping into things.)
-- CasaLoco, May 14 2001


CasaLoco - do you have a link?
-- st3f, May 14 2001


<pedant> 'see anything out of it' ? This one always flips my pedant switch. Don't you see *into* your eyes? </pedant>
-- angel, May 15 2001


No.
-- salmon, Nov 27 2001


Well, no, I realise that *you* don't, that being the whole point of this idea, but, generally speaking, 'one' does.
How are those eyes doing? My wife is soon to have cataract surgery. I'll let you know how much fun it is.
-- angel, Nov 27 2001


<anarchopedant>Surely, seeing *into* your own eyes requires a mirror, some surgical tools, a strong stomach and a rather disturbing level of curiosity, angel? The _light_ goes *into* your eyes, yes, but *sight* is a much more abstract thing, being a phenomenon of consciousness described in terms of spatial orientation. You see out of a window. You see out of an eye. Or you don't.</anarchopedant>

On topic: You wouldn't get stereoscopic vision with this, I think. Might give you a weird perspective on things though, if your brain could adapt. Personally, though, my right eye is pretty dodgy (registers light fine, just refuses point blank to focus on anything) and I've never really found this much of a problem. I'm shit at judging distance if, say, a ball is coming straight at me, but I hate sports anyway so WTF. In fact, there's a part of me that's always rather fancied losing it in an accident just so I could wear an eyepatch and look like a) a pirate, b) the Norse god Odin, or c) Kurt Russell in Escape From New York. Guess that's just me, though.
-- Guy Fox, Nov 28 2001


Or possibly Gabrielle. If this could work, it could be adapted for vertical stereoscopic vision aswell to, for instance, judge a ball better.
-- Citizen Rat, Nov 28 2001


Guy Fox--you can wear an eyepatch anyhow, and just tell anyone who wants to see under that "you're better off not seeing it unless you have a stomach of steel" or something :)

(wore an eyepatch myself for a day once--was about 6, my kid brother scratched my cornea with a ruler. O, the joyful days of childhood... it give you a headache, actually. or it did me.)
-- Urania, Dec 17 2001


Dear salmon, if somehow I could rewire your brain to let you achieve this goal, I surely would. Sight is a blessing that only people that don't have it can truly appreciate.

Unfortunately, no matter how flexible and adaptable the brain is, biology is against you. You only have a single optic nerve coming out of your good eye, and it interfaces with the brain at a single Optic Chiasma. Thus, you can never achieve binocular vision with only a single optic nerve. It's like a walkie-talkie. It's only half-duplex and you can talk or listen, but not simutaneously. Only radical tinkering with it's electronics will ever make it full-duplex. Here's hoping that your corneal transplant makes your life richer though. I think it will, very good success ratio with that procedure.
-- eyeguy, Jan 23 2004


Eye Guy, you are everywhere! Are you related to Bicycle Repair Man?
-- k_sra, Jan 23 2004



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