Forum Discussion
ocular dominance, hogwash?
no im not talking about defeating vr sickness, im talking about eye dominance.
the idea that the images from one of your eyes is somehow used more by your brain. does such a thing actually exist?
via wikipedia, there are several similar tests to determine eyedness, the simplest and worst is as follows:
1. hold your thumb out at arms length
2. aim thumb at distant object with both eyes open
3. close eyes alternatively.
the eye in which both your thumb and the object are visible, on top of each other is your dominant eye.
this test fails at #2, are you supposed to focus on your thumb, or on the object? either way you will see a double image on whatever you arent focused on, which double do you use to align the objects? thats what determines your eyedness in this test.
there are other variants that are similar, like making an ok sign with your hand, and pointing it at a distant object such that it is contained within the circle between your thumb and pointer finger. with this method the other eyes view of the object can be obscured by the fleshy part of your thumb and the back of the hand, provided you are focusing on your hand. lol but if you use your other hand, and the same methodology you will get the opposite eye as the dominant one.
another and allegedly the most accurate requires a piece of cardboard with a hole in it, and you eyeball a distant object through the hole and then close your eyes alternatively as before and thats your dominant eye boom. i didnt actually do it, but i imagine if you moved the cardboard or your head around, you would be able to see the other eyes view of the object so its still basically a crapshoot.
thoughts?
the idea that the images from one of your eyes is somehow used more by your brain. does such a thing actually exist?
via wikipedia, there are several similar tests to determine eyedness, the simplest and worst is as follows:
1. hold your thumb out at arms length
2. aim thumb at distant object with both eyes open
3. close eyes alternatively.
the eye in which both your thumb and the object are visible, on top of each other is your dominant eye.
this test fails at #2, are you supposed to focus on your thumb, or on the object? either way you will see a double image on whatever you arent focused on, which double do you use to align the objects? thats what determines your eyedness in this test.
there are other variants that are similar, like making an ok sign with your hand, and pointing it at a distant object such that it is contained within the circle between your thumb and pointer finger. with this method the other eyes view of the object can be obscured by the fleshy part of your thumb and the back of the hand, provided you are focusing on your hand. lol but if you use your other hand, and the same methodology you will get the opposite eye as the dominant one.
another and allegedly the most accurate requires a piece of cardboard with a hole in it, and you eyeball a distant object through the hole and then close your eyes alternatively as before and thats your dominant eye boom. i didnt actually do it, but i imagine if you moved the cardboard or your head around, you would be able to see the other eyes view of the object so its still basically a crapshoot.
thoughts?
17 Replies
- Wow, that thumb test was frighteningly accurate.
Interesting thoughts, overall. As my vision gets worse with aged and now I've used the Rift I've wondered how this would be tackled and have noticed more contrast issues with my non-dominant eye. - that is sort of frightening, would you describe your experience in detail? as in did you focus on a distant object or your thumb? did you see a double image of the object that was not in focus? the divergent view would require that, if so what double did you select to align with the distant object and why?
as you mentioned you have contrast issues with your non dominant eye, does that imply that you were less then impartial in your testing? its okay to have a presumed result as long as you dont allow that to interfere with objectivity. - I was just surprised at how offset it would be. I focused on both thumb/background object in separate cases to compare and did not compare partially.
I lined my thumb up until the object was gone, closed my right eye and looked pretty much exactly the same, then closed my left eye and saw the huge offset. It was just surprising that the left eye was basically nearly all I really recognized and the right eye wasn't playing much of a role - at least not one that I was actively considering.
I could see the result from the right eye, but I had to mentally look for it, the left eye was clearly what my brain was using dominantly. When I close my right eye I feel like I still see most of my surroundings, but closing my left eye makes the room feel dark and I don't sense much depth/peripheral vision.
Just a weird experience. Really showed me how my right eye is deteriorating. - ahh, well that is an unusual condition, im sorry about your vision problems i hope it doesnt impact your rifting. in someone with healthy eyes though im pretty sure either eye could be dominant depending on the circumstances of the test. thankfully though for your case the brain does compensate and fill in the gaps.
- @Snarfbot; It is not actually an unusual condition. Back in the day I did this came up for something in one of our Optics classes. Every person in the room (Of like 18-20) was able to observe a rather large offset.
EDIT; Sorry, yeah, his condition is unusual. Somehow I missed that. But having a dominant eye is pretty standard. - The test is not about focusing on either your thumb or the background, it's about line of sight. Naturally you can't focus both near and far at the same time. When you hold your thumb or anything up in front of a distant object you do so directly in front of your dominant eye, in the straight line of sight. The non-dominant eye is apparently just there giving binocular depth cues to your brain.
Interesting is how much of the world we see is synthesized by the brain rather than being real, like in-filling the blind spot. "Roaster" wrote:
Interesting is how much of the world we see is synthesized by the brain rather than being real, like in-filling the blind spot.
That's basically what I was surprised at, the offset was a surprise because I'd never really thought about it, but the clearly more dominant eye and noticeable difference in vision quality between eyes is what was weird. Your eyes are returning the information, but your brain is filtering the information the way it wants unless you force it to notice things otherwise - like mentally focus on the other eye's image that may be a blurry offset and the brain is trying to ignore.
Pretty neat, but I don't have some weird unusual vision problem.- I thought that was crap too. I get the same offset with both eyes, i.e. my thumb jumps to the left of the object when I close my right eye and jumps to the right when I close my left eye. With both eyes open I see 2 thumbs when focused on the distant object (one on each side). I thought that was normal:? I'm fairly ambidextrous though, so maybe that's has something to do with it?
- Interesting thought.
My eye dominance is quite pronounced, probably because I have a large astigmatism in one eye.
If this is more truth than fiction it raises three other questions:
How will this affect our perceptions of objects in the virtual world?
Would those differences in perceptions contribute towards VR sickness ?
Can we calibrate and adjust for in the same way as IPD?
Hmmmm. - I'm near sighted in my right eye. But I don't notice because my left eye image is dominant, I don't even notice one eye is blurry unless it's an extreme situation like looking at stars (I see a bright dot with a fuzzy glow around it).
