Can the human brain process 360 Degrees of View?

[darthdavid]

I was thinking about the helmets described on some soldiers in happy target's fic (this may not have actually been in there, it's been a long time since i've read it and I don't want to bother going back and checking) and was wondering, if a helmet was made with cameras all the way around and the info was wired right into the optic neves would the brain be able to process it such that a person would understand it? What if it went through screens into the eyes (like I think it did in the fic)? Say a person could process this, how disoreienting would it be and how long would you think it would take for a hypothetical person to be able to learn to handle it without disorentation?

[Spyder]

You'd have numerous pockets of peripheral vision with a few central spots. Only one point will have your attention at a time.

To get an idea of what it might look like would be to open your favourite first person shooter's config file and crank the viewing angle up as high as it will go. The first thing you'll notice is that things infront of you will seem further away. Basically, just think of this effect expanded out until the sides meet each other.

[Xero Cool Down]

Well, we possess a greater range of vision with two eyes than what we use, same goes for the skin. You can only focus on one area of your vision at a time, and while you feel everything your skin touches you don't tend to notice it unless you notice that particular area. I imagine it wouldn't be that confusing if you grew up with 360 degree vision because you would tune out everything that you weren't concentrating on. Imagine what it would be like growing up with one eye and suddenly being able to see out of the other.

[Spyder]

Actually, in that situation I think you'd just stop bumping into things.

[Erik von Nein]

Actually, in that situation I think you'd just stop bumping into things.

Yay depth perception!

I suppose it's possible to process 360º vision. I don't know how that'd look, though.

[SyntaxVorlon]

It would probably require a huge amount more processing power or training. The brain would have to devote a lot of resources to seeing everything around them OR theoretically being able to process the less refined images in peripheral vision with greater speed or efficiency.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The best bet is to have your eyes on the side of your head like other mammals such as rabbits who have great senses for evading predators and that's why you can never sneak up on them. It does mean that vision focused directly forward is degraded somewhat.

[Zoink]

Yes, I think they would be able comprehend it. However, they're not going to have 360 degrees of depth perception or anything like that. If wired so that forward vision was normal then the image was "compressed" in the peripheral vision, then I think they could easily notice something and immediately turn 80 degrees (or whatever) to get a better look at it.

Humans can adapt visual information. Best example is the rear-view mirror of a car. The image appears to be inside/past the mirror, but we've trained ourselves to immediately equate it to something behind us and we adjust our virtual/conceptual 3D image of what's around us automatically (at least that's how most people react as far as I know).

On a similar note, I've read somewhere that if you were to flip/mirror the image we see, then our brain would eventually "flip" it back. I'd guess that's meaning we'd learn that left was right and vice versa, and we'd eventually perceive the image accordingly.

[Korvan]

On a similar note, I've read somewhere that if you were to flip/mirror the image we see, then our brain would eventually "flip" it back. I'd guess that's meaning we'd learn that left was right and vice versa, and we'd eventually perceive the image accordingly.

There was an experiment done where the participants had to wear these funky goggles that reversed up and down. After a few days, their brains adjusted and they would function normally. Until they had to take the googles off. It took the same time for them to readjust again.

[wolveraptor]

Isn't it great messing with peoples heads?

I think a more interesting scenario would be if you had the same degree of depth perception 360 degrees around, and on top of your head, that you do now. It'd probably be too much for your brain to handle all at once.

[Sriad]

I can see it working if you kept the central arc of vision as-is and fish eyed the rest into your peripheral vision. You wouldn't be able to read the newspaper the guy behind you was holding, but you'd be able to react if he pulled a gun on you.

Or you might build in a refocusing system so our subject could decide where the important area was and expand that into the visual core, with everything else shrinking to the edges.

[Lord of the Abyss]

There was an experiment done where the participants had to wear these funky goggles that reversed up and down. After a few days, their brains adjusted and they would function normally. Until they had to take the googles off. It took the same time for them to readjust again.

Given these experiments, even if a "360 degree vision helmet" is possible, putting it on and taking it off will cause problems. Some sort of "sensor circlet" you can wear permenantly would be more practical, I think.

[Broomstick]

Although the human brain is amazingly adaptable, it does have its limits.

As an example, the prescription for my eyeglasses is such that there is severe distortion outside of my central vision, a sort of fish-eye effect. This causes other people who look through them to sometimes get dizzy, even nauseous, and they find it very confusing. I, however, have adapted to this after so many years and see no distortion at all. Somewhere between my retina and my concious thought some editing/correction occurs.

Another example is the use of "monovision" for prebyopia correction. Presbyopia is "old peoples' eyes", where you need reading glasses/bifocals because the lens loses its full range of focus. An alternative to bifocals is to correct one eye for distance vision and the other for near vision. After a short period of time, the brain learns to suppress the fuzzy image without concious thought (although depth perception does suffer somewhat). That is, if you are able to adapt - not everyone can. Interestingly, women are better able to adapt to this than men, significantly so. Since this adjustment is almost exclusively used in people over 40, it's an example of how the brain retains some flexibility even into middle and old age.

On the other hand, medical experience with people with congenital low or absent vision who are later given sight indicate that the brain must be exposed to vision in order to "learn" how to see, and if this does not occur prior to early puberty - say, around 12 - then then regions of the brain usually used for vision will be coopted for touch, hearing, and other senses. The result is that if vision is given after adulthood the person may "see" but never be able to properly process that information. One such case was documented by Oliver Sachs in the essay "To See, and Not to See" (later turned into a full-length movie) but there are other cases.

In cases where vision loss occured later in life, if it was restored after a few decades the brain sometimes learned to process the information all over again, and sometimes not.

You best chance of adapting to 360 vision is if you acquire it prior to age 12 and that is your primary visual mode 90% of the time or more. Acquiring it later in life may or may not be a situation where one can adapt, and the degree of adaptation will vary from person to person. If the subject in question is female, adaption is more likely still.

[Perinquus]

The best bet is to have your eyes on the side of your head like other mammals such as rabbits who have great senses for evading predators and that's why you can never sneak up on them. It does mean that vision focused directly forward is degraded somewhat.

But the fact that we have eyes directly forward means that biologically we are more like hunters than prey. It's always nice to be at the top of the food chain.

[Molyneux]

There was an experiment done where the participants had to wear these funky goggles that reversed up and down. After a few days, their brains adjusted and they would function normally. Until they had to take the googles off. It took the same time for them to readjust again.

Given these experiments, even if a "360 degree vision helmet" is possible, putting it on and taking it off will cause problems. Some sort of "sensor circlet" you can wear permenantly would be more practical, I think.

Mwahaha..VISOR! I would so cosplay as Geordi if I could have something like that...granted, I'd have to die my skin brown first...