Watch a QuickTime
movie
explaining how the eye processes images and sends them to
the brain.
Scene
1. Parallel Movies in the retina. This movie depicts the
region of the retina where the dozen or so images that inform
the brain about the visual world are formed. Each movie
is carried intact to the brain by a distinct class of optic
nerve fibers.
Scene
2. Stratification of the Dendrites. This movie shows what
retinal anatomists have known for years, namely, that this
region of the retina is filled with the processes of cells
that stratify in precise layers. The function of this stratification
was not known until now.
Scene
3. A series of representations of a face, each characterizing
a different feature of the visual input. Some characterize
edges, others broad regions, others shadows, others bright
areas, others movement. The representations are sparse in
both space and time.
Scene
4. Putting the outputs of all the movies together gives
a sense of the complete face, characterizing all of the
salient features of the scene.
Scene
5. These image processing operations can be mediated in
silicon by CNN to efficiently generate a full set of patterns
that could be “tuned” by the prosthetics team to fit each
blind patient.
