The Accident That Led to Machines That Can See - Issue 107: The Edge

For something so effortless and automatic, vision is a tough job for the brain. It's remarkable that we can transform electromagnetic radiation--light--into a meaningful world of objects and scenes. After all, light focused into an eye is merely a stream of photons with different wave properties, projecting continuously on our retinas, a layer of cells on the backside of our eyes. Before it's transduced by our eyes, light has no brightness or color, which are properties of animal perception. Our retinas transform this energy into electrical impulses that propagate within our nervous system. Somehow this comes out as a world: skies, children, art, auroras, and occasionally ghosts and UFOs.