Slashdot Mirror
Blind Man Navigates Obstacle Maze Unaided
iammani writes "The NYTimes runs a story about a blind man (blind because of a damaged visual cortex) successfully navigating an obstacle maze, unaided. Scientists have shown for the first time that it is possible for people who are blinded because of damage to the visual (striate) cortex can navigate by 'blindsight,' through which they can detect things in their vicinity without being aware of seeing them."
"By tapping into the secondary pathways like this, I can "see" about twice as well as most people in the dark"
Mate, you're not tapping into anything. Everyone has varying night vision - it all depends on the number of rods you have on your retina and how well your eyes adapt to low light. So give it up with the night vision powers BS , you don't have it.
As for people seeing in infra red - err , no. That would require a major structural change to the rods or cones which wold require a common but as yet undiscovered genetic mutation. Apparently we all have some ability to see the very near infrared if the source is extremely bright but even that only extends a short way down.
"Since the average person's brain normally focuses intently upon just a small area in front of them, expanding that to your entire field of vision makes a huge difference."
Right , because normal people never see something out the corner of their eye as they only ever concentrate on whats right in front of them. Yeah , to see stuff in peripheral vision you need months of l337 training! Not. If we didn't notice stuff in our peripheral vision all our ancestors would have been eaten by lions millions of years ago and we wouldn't be here to have this dicussion.