Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/03/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Your dog and your cat, in fact most animals, do not see colors in the same way we do. A study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that the complex scenery of the African savanna of 10 million years ago influenced the pattern in which the human retina's red, green, and blue light sensitive cone cells are arranged. Studies in other species suggest that the color sensitive cells of the eye are arranged in a manner which extracts the maximum amount of information from the animal's environment. Based of an analysis of 5000 photos taken in the area where humans likely evolved, the researchers predicted the arrangement of cells in our retinas. It turned out to match the actual distribution of color sensitive cells found in contemporary human eyes. The research, reported in the Mar. 4 issue of Science, offers clues to the improvement of machine vision and for the design of color separation filters (Bayer filters) for digital cameras. A preprint of the study is available at: http://scim.ag/eyes-evolve Larry Z