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Ask Slashdot: How to Exploit Post-Cataract Ultraviolet Vision?
xmas2003 writes "I recently had cataract surgery with a Crystalens implant. With my cloudy yellowing (UV-filtering) natural lens removed, I see the world in a new light (more on that in a moment) as everything is brighter and colors are more vivid ... plus in focus.
As a typical Slashdot reader, I've been myopic since childhood, so it's wonderful not to have to wear glasses/contacts for distance. One interesting oddity is that I can now see ultraviolet light — it seems that there are a few people who have photoreceptors sensitive below 400nm into the UV spectrum. I've done some testing with a Black Light and UV filter to confirm this but would love to do more conclusive testing such as using a Monochromator — anyone in the Boulder, Colorado area have access to one? And any suggestions from Slashdot readers on how I can further explore this phenomenon? While I can't see dead people, I guess I have a 'superpower' ... although I'm not sure a middle-aged suburbanite dad should don purple tights and cape to become a crime-fighter!"
Think up a really cool super hero name. Then we can you welcome you as an overlord. Assuming that you can get Natalie Portman to deliver the Hot Grits!
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Don't go out of your way to expose your eyes to UV!
Best "Ask Slashdot" in ages.
Have fun enjoying your superpower
I guess you'd be a good "natural" tracker now...
Actually, you should don purple lights.
Given the presence of NIST, NOAA, JILA, and a whole bunch of optics and laser companies, I'm sure someone can hook you up! ^_^
Your eyes do not. UV light damages your eyes. That's why all but the most rubbish shades include a UV filter. Don't look at strong UV sources with remaining eye.
Do black lights actually look black when on to most people? I thought they only looked black when they're off. To me they've always looked white with purple edges when on. I thought that was normal.
Cool art gallery, if you're into that sort of thing.
1. Check to see if this ability enhances your sight during low level light. 2. Check the boundaries of your abilities and record such data. Is there a certain amount of UV light you can and can not detect? 3. Use this ability for a stealth motion detector. If a robber can't see in the dark, but you can, this would be a advantage. 4. Use this ability to sneak in late at night to prevent people yelling at you! :p
5. During a Solar eclipse, TOTALLY watch it, with proper protection of course. You will be recieving a special view that few humans will ever experience. :3
Restore the madness of youth's lechery
Which naturally gives off UV which could make this power very useful? Aside from being able to see UV bulbs...
I can't remember much from physics ... IR vision would have been much more cool and useful.
Boulder is well populated with optics companies - in particular, those that make thin film interference filters with which it should be possible to judge your hyperspectral imaging ability. As a start, i would try:
Research Electro-Optics
Alpine Research Optics
Semrock and Edmund optics would also be able to help.
Expect to pay $100-$500.
Didn't Lazarus Long see into the UV range?
Back in WWII, when the medical treatment was much more primitive, elderly persons in England, who had vision partially restored by cataract surgery, were asked to watch for long wave UV covert signals, from off the coast vessels, as part of the war effort. This may be an urban legend -- it is unanswered on Snopes http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=25056, but I do recall reading about it as a child, I believe in a commentary written by Arthur C. Clarke. But the memory is vague, and who knows where Clarke might have learned of it. So as something vaguely remembered from a book half a century old, that may or may not exist, where the original author may or may not have had first hand knowledge, ... well, by Internet standards, that's your proof right there!
-- Perhaps I see less than some, but more than many.
UV is on the more energetic side of the visual spectrum, the part that gives you sunburn by destroying cells. I don't think that it is very advantageous that more of it hits your retina now.
Sorry; you do not have special UV-sensitive super-powers. So-called "black" lights are not, by any stretch of the imagination, UV-only. They have a filter on them that blocks most, but not all, visible light. They are called "black" lights because the UV causes appropriately fluorescent and phosphorescent materials to glow out of proportion to the visible light emitted by the bulb.
I understand that the definitive text on ultraviolet astronomy was written about then by an astronomer who had also been through the operation.
For him astronomical objects with high UV emission were "naked eye objects". He could just look through the telescope eyepiece and zero in on interesting stuff, when others had to wait for the film to be developed.
Not as big a deal these days, with 'scopes aimed using semiconductor image sensors rather than naked eye. But may still be an advantage.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
My prescription glasses have the tint that goes from essentially clear to sunglasses depending on light. I've noticed if I look at black light with them on, they go kind of foggy, which I guess makes sense given that IIRC, it's actually ultraviolet light that makes the shift happens, which is also why they're less effective in cars. Anyone else have this effect?
Sigh. No. Only excessive UV light can damage the eye. If you are both lacking the UV filter in your lens and are able to perceive a reasonable spread of UV light, you'll instinctlively blink when it gets bright enough to do damage, just like regular light.
There's a real danger for people who have the surgery but don't see anything in the UV spectrum that's now hitting their retinal cells. But at the age most people get cataract surgery, who cares? They generally don't.
"purple tights and cape to become a crime-fighter?"
Of course not!!! They should be black as in Batman and possibly some green as in the Green Lantern!
Purple?! No way for a dad!
But if you are serious with fighting crime on a regular basis i guess the police blue would fit too, and if you get the badge then you're set.
No Capes!
Many things appear different and downright gross under UV light. I've rented a UV CCD imager - here are some things that you may find interesting to look at:
Skin damage
Dental plaque
Oliy/organic stains and contaminants - fingerprints, floor wax patterns
Anything with fine structure - scratches and scattering are wavelength dependent
reapir jobs - cars that are repainted, furniture
You can rent such a device here: http://www.uvcorder.com/ . The product is excellent. Their customer service department seems to be staffed by extraterrestrials, though - dealing with them was a bizzare experience.
Normally after cataract surgery any implant you are given will contain a UV filter. I'm not sure you didn't but you are certainly not the first to have had this happen.
The best exploit I heard about was to have one eye filtered and one eye unfiltered. Objects that reflect or emit UV then appear to shimmer as the brain attempts to reconcile the differences between the left and right image.
Do I really have to suggest to a bunch of /.ers to try and see thru clothing using UV light? Some clothing is sorta IR transparent, sorta.
My gut level guess is very little clothing is UV transparent, but bleached underclothes might fluoresce brightly beneath regular clothes, maybe.
In a completely unrelated topic, does anyone know of any (long term) UV phosphors? Perhaps the original poster could see glow in the dark "whatever" that most of us couldn't see. I'm not talking about short term florescence, but long term phosphorescence. florescence is that rock that momentarily glows yellow when hit with UV. phosphorescence is that weird kids plastic toys that glow and give off green light for a couple minutes after being charged with light. This is what I'm interested in, is there anything that glows UV for a couple minutes after being flashed momentarily with light?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
I thought all sunglasses had UV protection because the cheapest plastics aren't transparent to UV light. I was under the impression that UV filtration was easy because very few materials are UV transparent.
moox. for a new generation.
Superman can see even beyond the ultraviolet, into the x-ray spectrum, but only when he wants to. Me, I've been trying like heck to shut off my ability to see blue, primarily during Redskins/Cowboys football games, but I haven't yet gotten it to work. So I was thinking, maybe the shorter wavelengths are what allow voluntary control. Please let us know what you discover.
In related news for nerds, here's a B movie about a guy who wanted to see more outside the normal-human spectrum, but without the ability to turn it off: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057693/
I can too but I never knew it was a rare/unusual thing, it just never came up in conversation or ophthalmologist visits. This is strange news indeed.
One interesting oddity is that I can now see ultraviolet light — it seems that there are a few people who have photoreceptors sensitive below 400nm into the UV spectrum. I've done some testing with a Black Light and UV filter
1) Purchase a UV source and filter the heck out of it to output purely UV (no purple leakage). Ask a geologist or perhaps a scorpion exterminator, they'll know what to buy...
2) Visit astronomical telescope parties and offer your safety assistance... help walking down the mountain, help reading directions, help stepping off the road curb without tripping, just .. sighted help in general.
What to them is pitch black, to you, could be lit up like a searchlight, at least until your batteries die.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
We should be breeding this trait RIGHT NOW.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
I can't help you with the Monochromator, but you should spend some time looking at the flowers around where you live. You may be surprised to see different patterns on the petals, etc. I'm slightly jealous, despite being educated enough to have a healthy respect for the natural UV filtering mechanisms that the human body comes equipped with.
One interesting oddity is that I can now see ultraviolet light â" it seems that there are a few people who have photoreceptors sensitive below 400nm into the UV spectrum.
In World War II the OSS recruited elderly cataract patients as coastwatchers --- able to read Morse sent over UV light.
Stanley Lovell's "Of Spies & Stratagems" can be found quite cheaply in paperback and as a legit free download on the web. It's well worth a read.
Lovell was the head of R&D for the OSS, their "Professor Moriarity," and it is here you will learn why.
It is called visible light for a reason. UV wavelengths reflect poorly which makes "seeing" anything lit up in UV light unlikely. Items exposed to UV light fluoresce rather than reflect. Also, what makes you think UV light has anything to do with violet or purple? The wavelength is beyond violet. If you could see UV light, you would be seeing the next color in the spectrum, which would be very cool. What you are experiencing is sensitivity to UV light due to your natural UV filter being removed.
Every Xmas one of the folks in the neighborhood puts up decorations that emit a purplish light. It never fails to give me a sinus headache. Older Xenon lights did the same thing.
Comparing what I see when looking at a blacklight to the two pictures at the second link, I can see something a lot closer to the 2nd picture than the first. Is the effect just greatly exaggerated for the purposes of the picture, or can I see UV? I did always wonder why blacklights weren't called purple lights...
Just to correct something said in the post, almost everyone has UV sensitive cones, it's entirely the removal of lens. In fact, most of the photoreceptors in the eye are at least partially sensitive to UV light (From the paper "Ultraviolet sensitivity of three cone types in the aphakic observer determined by chromatic adaptation" where a scientist who had his cornea removed studied himself).
Forget about dead people, focus on seeing naked people! Especially young female ones.
I remember from a few years ago, the newest bathing suites that didn't make tan lines were all the rage.
I expect the technology to have gone better over time, so today I'm sure the hottest ladies on the most exclusive beaches will sport perfectly uv-transparent bikinis.
Now, I don't need to tell you that they sell uv-passing filters, those that block all other light. Put them on a pair of welding glasses, so that no ray of light can reach your eyes except through the uv-passing filters. Wear them on said exclusive beach, wait a few minutes for your eyes to adapt to night vision TA DA, a superpower to envy!
I can't say this has been particularly more useful to me although I do think I see rainbows as 'wider' than most people with a much thicker "purple" band than others seem to see. Totally subjective and something I can't substantiate but I think I am more sensitive to sunlight as well.
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
A percentage of women have an extra type of cone in their eyes which would seem to indicate sensitivity to more light spectrum but at last word no one had proof of any advantage to the mutation.
That may be true for non-ionizing radiation, such as visible and IR. However, because UV light is ionizing, the damage it does is CUMULATIVE. I.e., there is no threshold.
And then mark the cards with UV paint.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Don't look at UV light.
UV light bulbs are used to kill germs (really all living things) in hospitals and to erase EPROMs.
UV light is extraordinarily dangerous for your skin and ESPECIALLY your eyes. I had moderate eye damage from looking at one as a kid for several minutes. It never goes away or gets better. It's a cool purpley-white color for those of you who want to know what it looks like.
Frankly I'm concerned about the health implications of having no natural UV filter. What protects the rest of your eye(s) from UV light?
People have been doing the same thing for IR.
http://amasci.com/amateur/irgoggl.html
You could make UV goggles to let the UV pass only and go out on a sunny day. You wouldn't expose your eyes to much more UV than regular (well, your pupils will be open wider so it may be about 10x more). Enjoy the new experience.
Bert
I had cataract surgery earlier this year. My ophthalmologist told me that all modern replacement lenses filter out the UV to protect the eyes. However, the lenses do reflect light better than natural ones giving you a bit of a "cat's eye" effect. I like to tell people that I now have bionic eyes to go along with my augmented hearing. Does this make me a cyborg?
Good, inexpensive web hosting
In nature, strong UV light only occurs together with bright visible light. He's looking for UV-only light sources to look at. It is highly improbable that dangerous levels of UV light will trigger the blink reflex, because the sensitivity is going to be low. Then there's the matter of what a "dangerous level" of UV light is: Even though exposure to sunlight is generally healthy, it does age the skin even in moderate amounts. UV light damages cells. Less UV light just damages fewer cells, not none.
We should be breeding this trait RIGHT NOW.
Well, he did refer to himself as a "suburban dad" - so he's been doing his part...
#DeleteChrome
i'd love to be a super human crime-fighter.
Anything where your ability to see a custom display that others cannot gives you an advantage. An alphanumeric LCD with a UV back light and filter for example.
Have gnu, will travel.
". As a typical Slashdot reader, I've been myopic since childhood,"
Seriously, WTF?With that kind of biased reasoning, it's no wonder you have convinced yourself you can see into the UV.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It could be Octarine. Not sure if being able to do or at least see magic is considered superpower, but it could have interesting applications. In any case, is better than seeing infra-black.
Any UV likely to reach your eye is non-ionizing. At the energies where it becomes potentially ionizing, it can't travel in air very far... so unless you have an short wavelength UV emitter up against your face there's hardly any danger there.
=Smidge=
As a typical Slashdot reader, I've been myopic since childhood,
Hey now, that's uncalled for. Sure, there are some around here who are still expecting the next Year of the Linux Desktop, but you can't let them speak for all of us!
But more seriously, I've had great vision more or less for my whole life. I don't think it's entirely genetic either (though my father has never needed glasses either), and I have always done a lot of reading/computer in my time as well. I just make sure to look away every few minutes and focus on something far away so my eyes don't adjust too rigidly. So I wonder if it wouldn't be too difficult to prevent bad eyesight if other people did this too.
I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
That may be true for non-ionizing radiation, such as visible and IR. However, because UV light is ionizing, the damage it does is CUMULATIVE. I.e., there is no threshold.
Sayeth wikipedia:
Most ultraviolet is classified as non-ionizing radiation. The higher energies of the ultraviolet spectrum from about 150 nm ('vacuum' ultraviolet) are ionizing, but this type of ultraviolet is not very penetrating and is blocked by air.
So, probably okay unless Ultraman wants to look at a strong source in a vaccum.
Babies can see further into the UV than adults, probably due to the gradual yellowing of the cornea, which usually becomes apparent in old age. Water reflects UV to varying degrees, too.
In short:
Sucks to be you!
UV will fry your retina ... thats why replacement lenses have UV protection.
Get an UV protection lenses implanted or consult the ophthalmologist who did the operation.
Wish you all the best.
One thing that interests me as a circadian rhythms researcher is your sleep patterns before/after the surgery. Your body clock is reset primarily by blue light, and people tend to become more "larkish" on an owl/lark (Horne-Ostberg) scale with age. People's perception of blue light recedes with age. But there are also possible brain changes that affect one's need and ability to sleep, so experiences like yours can tease away some of the covariates. Do you find yourself sleeping at the same time of day (given a choice), and do you feel most alert at the same time of day?
I'll ask around and see what I can find. Work has a lab to specifically measure human eye sensitivity across the spectrum, but unfortunately it's in Illinois. However, I'm wondering if you couldn't build a DIY spectrophotometer using a DVD as a diffraction grating, and see what your sensitivity/wavelength/intensity graph would be.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
...though "ability to see into the UV part of the spectrum" is not quite as useful as "ability to smell into the future" (my personal fave).
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." --Groucho Marx
He's more machine than man now
' ... although I'm not sure a middle-aged suburbanite dad should don purple tights and cape to become a crime-fighter!"
You're correct; you'll be wanting ultraviolet pants for this job...
Maybe you could loan/hire out your services to the local campus police departments. At night, go around with them and point out the windows where you see the most grow lights seeping out.
Extra vision off the short wave-length end of the spectrum means seeing more blue.
But do we want to see more blue? I suppose we might if we sing blues.
It is the other end that is the winning end. Off the long wave-lengths end of the spectrum. Beyond the reds. There we can see what is hot.
I have that power, myself. I can walk in anywhere and see the hot.
But even this is not a super-power. Especially as one paunches through middle-age and warps into the wrinkles of time beyond.
Several books on observing Venus through modest instruments tell of people who see detail in the upper cloud layers long before things went into orbit. They used their unusual optical acuity to draw detail and shading that other people said was not there. These observations were later confirmed with more advanced instruments and spacecraft that had UV capability.
Photokeratitis can happen even when yours eyes do constrict. The Inuit eskimos used to make goggles out of caribou antlers to protect their eyes from UV light. Without that protection, the UV light reflecting off of snow was enough to cause blindness.
Put on the tights, or dont. http://www.reallifesuperheroes.com/
I thought all sunglasses had UV protection
Yep.
That's why you can buy $5 sunglasses with full UV certification.
Neither glass nor polycarbonates will let UV though. Anything else is bad science by sunglass salespeople.
No sig today...
Years, nay decades, back I read about gamblers who wore rose-colored glasses to read marked cards. Tinted contacts were substituted in later years. Perhaps there are clear fluids that now have a 'color' to you! Expect to soon see spinoffs in CSI, The Fringe, Alphas, etc.
1. Mark some nice decks of cards in ultraviolet ink and give them to all your friends.
2. Develop an interest in poker.
3. Show restraint.
Stay out of cheap Motel rooms; You might see stains you don't want to see. ;)
Especially on the ceiling above the bed!
Oh and "No Capes!"
and what i mean by that is, natural mutations in cone pigments means that 2-3% of women are tetrachromatic. only women can achieve this, with their two X chromosomes. the inference is that half their brothers would be somewhat colorblind, with a pigment with a skewed sensitivity range overlapping with normal ranges
for these rare women, the new sensitivity range falls in between existing blue/ green, or red/ green pigment ranges, not outside the normal human range into the ultraviolet. this is still important and potentially useful: looking at a simple vista of foliage or swirling river water, the tetrachromatic woman would theoretically see color patterns a normal human cannot
it is even more theoretical as to whether or not human neurology can support a fourth color channel, but normally dichromatic mice have been mutated to express a third channel, and further tests show that these mice can take advantage of the new color information. so at least mice brains can support the bandwidth for a new color channel
i suppose every superhero needs a supervillian, yours is obviously some chick somewhere. cue the softcore fan fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
... where they tell you you'll never see daylight again. So you dig up a doctor, pay him twenty menthol Kools to do a surgical shine job on your eyes
Of course it's company policy never to, imply ownership in the event of a dildo... always use the indefinite article a d
If only you'd gotten IR vision instead of UV. Then you'd be able to see through womens clothing!
Sounds like you got the wrong end of the spectrum :(
We should be breeding this trait RIGHT NOW.
Well, he did refer to himself as a "suburban dad" - so he's been doing his part...
That's what his wife wants him to think anyway. Looking up rates of superfecundation is an exercise for the reader.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
sorry for anon. I poked around komar.org and found it somewhat eery. Clicked on the first link, then scrolled down---Whooboy... There is a lot of family info, and some basic content, but has not been updated for years. There remains the descriptions of diseases, which sound awful, along with detailed walk-throughs of an evolutionary new cataract surgery.
Humbly, I enquire:
Is it relevant, or even appropriate, to post an Ask Slashdot question that is laden with links to obviously stale content which also happens to include all sorts of donation opportunities?
See the link...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2002/may/30/medicalscience.research
UV photos can look very cool. You should have an advantage in being able to see things that look interesting in UV without having to make a photo to check.
I have no clue if what you see is anything like on the photos, but I figure it should at least give you a clue of what kind of thing to photograph.
Your vision is augmented.
"Your eyes do not. UV light damages your eyes. That's why all but the most rubbish shades include a UV filter."
While it is true that UV exposition might damage your eyes, that's not why shades should have an UV filter.
Think: have you heard of all people being blind before somebody invented them?
The point is that vogues filter *visible* light and thus avoid the natural reflex of both your iris contracting at high light intensities and/or your eyes blinking. Wearing sunglasses your eyes remain wide open so a higher than usual UV will pass through. *That* is why sunglasses should have an extra UV filter that pairs to their visible-spectrum filters.
I see slightly into the infra-red end of the spectrum, and proved it repeatedly in film photography class. When we were rolling negatives for small batch developing in full darkness I could see my classmates, and if they dropped something I could pick it up and take their hand and put the whatever in their hand.
The downside is my resolution in IR requires total darkness, and is very very faint. I didn't believe that I was doing it until I had several experiences with it and some conversations with classmates. I have met another person who also reports a similar experience, so I have to believe it is not terribly uncommon, just uncommon to recognize and not all that useful for most people. I would be unaware of this ability if I never took film photography.
Because your experiences in the UV end of the spectrum are obvious enough during full light I expect that projecting a large rainbow from a prism on a wall and having several people mark the lowest and highest portions of the spectrum will give you results you will find useful. Have them also mark individual color bands and you can calibrate the setup to other people in a repeatable manner.
Phil
Laugh, it's good for you!
Experimenting with a black light or a UV-black filter will not tell you whether you can see in UV or not. Black lights output a significant amount of visible light and UV-black filters all suffer from serious contamination at the deep red/near IR portion of the spectrum. The only UV pass filter available OTS is the 48mm Baader Venus filter. Other size Baader UV filters are older models with IR contamination.
And with that said, experimentation with UV light is dangerous and potentially excruciatingly painful. In normal people, playing with UV light sources will burn the cornea, resulting a lot of pain and temporary blindness (google "UV keratitis", "snowblind", or "arc eye"). For someone whose cornea has been compromised, it may be possible to burn the retina, which is far more serious.
As a physics professor, I must suggest that you test this with a hydrogen spectrum and a diffraction grating. You may remember that each element has its own "spectral fingerprint" of wavelengths of light that it emits when excited. Several of the spectral lines for hydrogen are in the visible spectrum, 656 nm (red), 486 nm (cyan), 434 nm (blue), 410 nm (indigo), 397 nm (UV). I've only ever seen the first three, my eyes aren't sensitive to the 410 nm light (plus it's fairly weak) . If you really have UV-sensitive eyes you should see the 410 nm easily and even the 397 nm light. Good luck!
I have UV-shifted vision (using original equipment). I'm color-blind with red appearing as black. A lifetime of research on lasers, LEDs and solar cells from UV-vis-IR has quantified my UV-shifted vision. I'd gladly trade it for normal vision. If a color is bright enough, anyone can see it just outside of their normal range. I can see high power red laser pointers, but for the most part, I've spent years watching people waving their arms around powerpoint presentations with no idea of where they are pointing. For red letters on a black background, I might as well be listening to the presentation on radio.
There is really no other question of relevance.
Guys in helicopters fly alongside power lines with ultraviolet detectors looking for flaws in insulators. :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLrP9mck7eM
You could be paid to fly around in choppers all day, simply by saying in your resume that you can save the company money on ultraviolet detection devices.
Are you colorblind?
Colorblind people have superior night vision, but may have some trouble distinguishing certain shades of colors depending on the lighting. As a colorblind person, I see (or think you see, which amounts to the same thing,) red, green, blue, yellow, etc.
The most noticeable indicator IMO is, can you tell how thoroughly cooked meat is just by looking? If not, you may be colorblind. Red-green is the most common type of colorblindness, and is also difficult to notice unless you take a test for it.
The apple remote uses ultraviolet light, doesn't it? If you point it at a webcam you can see it light up, but when you look at it you can't... So you can have someone use it to signal things for various reasons.. Shrug.
Flower traffic controller for bees.
I've always had this ability. I also see into red spectrum some as well, but not enough to see heat signatures. I see an slim extra 'color' band on both sides of intense rainbows. Also, I can determine colors later at night than most people, and I can make out shapes better with only star light. Heck, a clear night with a full moon on the beach is as good as daylight for me. However, after too long in a strip club, and I'll get a slight headache from all the blacklights (though that might be the music and / or stripper perfume).
I'm not Riddick, and it's nothing so major to be a superpower, but it is kinda neat.
All that said, my focal length is getting bad, and I have a slight astigmatism. It's about time for new glasses for me.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
. . . and help me find all the places the cat peed when he had that bladder condition.
I am not a crackpot.
I would suggest that you look into remote sensing labs both on campus (there is surely a lab at CU that has the type of device you're looking for), as well as some of the optical and spectral companies here in town. The tough part is that traditional remote sending techniques traditionally emphasize the infrared, as that provides the bulk of materials identification and other spectroscopic tasks, so you may have to dig a bit to find someone whose interest and capabilities stretch into the UV spectrum.
Walter Scott Houston is the co-editor of the Book "Deep-Sky Wonders (1999)" by Sky Publishing Corp. In the summer of 1980, reflecting his age, Walter Scott Houston finally underwent surgery to remove a cataract from his right eye. Now to just about anyone else, a cataract would spell the end of a sky gazing career. But not Houston. With his lens removed and a plastic UV-transparent replacement implanted, Scotty reported that a whole new world of star gazing was opened up. The flood of ultraviolet light onto his retina allowed him to see faint blue stars previously invisible by at least one magnitude above the visual limit (to normally sighted observers). He seemed to take delight in describing the hot blue central stars of planetary nebulae, especially the Ring Nebula, now easily viewed with small telescopes. Indeed, it was very amusing to read his accounts and skill in estimating, with his left eye, the visual magnitude of a particular star, and with his right eye, the photographic (blue sensitive) magnitude!
I know all the right people. You're sitting in a very fortunate place (lots of science in Boulder). Email me at noah (dot) bronstein (at) gmail (dot) com if you are serious about finding a spectrometer.
Hey Geeks, be like Geordi! Now you can be all scifi if you use this new/old technology.
Did I fail to mention the brand you should use? Oh, no, I didn't. It's right there in the first sentence. The lead so to speak.
"As a typical Slashdot reader" REALLY?
Did I mention who might benefit from this? Oh yes, I did. Twice. The demographic on this site. I'm creative. Buy my product.
University of Colorado Boulder happens to have a top notch optics program. There are likely more monochromators in a ten mile radius of the city than almost anywhere else on earth. My suggestion, however, is to consult your ophthalmologist and to be certain that you are not doing damage to your eyes in looking at UV radiation. If you darken a room and turn up the UV, your pupils will dilate and you will see some light below 400 nm. However, UV light exposure to the retina can occur in eyes with natural lenses and can lead to macular degeneration - I would definitely not volunteer for a test with a monochromator in the UV!
Protect your vision - you are lucky to have it!
My right eye has more vivid colors, and sees those strange blue security lights very differently from my left eye. I had always thought it was picking up UV. Now I am pretty sure it has. When I've used UV sources in science or to erase EPROMS, my right eye has reacted. That eye also has some difficulty in that it seems as if the lens has a shift to it. I can close the left eye, and get two images in my right at certain angles. Rather annoying. I think my brain stitches over it but at some moments, like with a sharp line, I can perceived the double image.
Also my right eye closes by reflex in bright sunlight, even though my left is not squinting.
My mom had cataract surgery a while ago.
She works in clothing/fashion, designing garments for kids and the like.
She noticed after the surgery that violets are different. I asked my optometrist, and she said that the cloudiness in the removed lens is yellowish, and the brain compensates for it, and therefore she is seeing a different color/hue after the surgery.
She did not tell me she had Steve Austin powers so far ...
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When exposed to bright UV do your pupils contract? I'd imagine they do but it would be interesting to check that. mrtn@mit.edu
in the book "man out of Time" his ability to "see" electrical fields was mentioned.
I had a cataract removed when I was in the 4th grade. At that time and age (9 years old in 1980), there was no replacement lens solution available. To this day I have no lens in my eye. I have been "able" to see ultraviolet lights since the surgery. You are the first person to see this as a benefit; it has been a benign to terrible distraction for me for over 30 years. Dark places like "Pirates of the Caribbean" at Disneyland are ruined by this bi-polar ability to see stark brightness in one eye and "normal" light in the other. I've looked for ways to lessen the impact to my vision without much success. I guess one person's excitement is another's angst.
Well, mouse piddle reflects UV--it's how hawks hunt, follow the trails of piddle that lead to mouse burrows since the nasty little things piddle everywhere they go. So there you are, super rodent-hunter man!
Alter Relationship As a physics professor, I must suggest that you test this with a hydrogen spectrum and a diffraction grating. http://www.caps-clothings.com/
According to Neil Stephenson in the Cryptanomicon (sp?) They had post cataract soldiers in a row boat and on shore and used UV lights to meet. The German soldiers could not see UV so they were blind to the lights.
According to the some Toaists if you spend 21 days in total darkness the brain converts melatonin to tryptophan then to 5meoh-DMT then to DMT (most powerful hallucinogen in the world.) After 14 days or so people claim to be able to see in UV and IR. This is before the ass-kicking drugs kick in.
You cold use a UV flashlight to illuminate object and see the reflections that we cannot. Apparently bees see in UV so many flower intricacies are lost on us.
This thread is entirely off topic, but slashdot needs a "+1 more interesting than the current subject" moderation. Thank you for the link.
"For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice" -- God
I do not know if you have it there, but tonic water contains tannin, which absorbs UV light, so you will probably see something that we don`t.
You can also look at the sky and look for ozone holes in the atmosphere in your next trip to Antarctica...
You might need a filter to block out the visible bandwidth, but they should be in the 390-320nm range.
I can attest to this as well. I had cataract surgeries in both eyes, at ages 24 & 25, about 15 years ago now. Violets are definitely a bit different. Oddly, they are even different between my two eyes - done a year apart.
Someone else mentioned here that the new IOLs (Intra-Ocular Lenses) filter out UV - but mine don't. My ophthalmologists / optometrists have warned me ever since my operations that my lenses don't filter out UV "like normal eyes", and I have to wear glasses with UV protection when I'm outside.
Blue LED diodes, particularly those in certain car alarms, are now particularly vivid in one eye.
You should become an astronomer, a bee, a flower expert, a raptor, a hawk hunting by mouse piddle, or a crow. Oh, and of course the superhero that can find supervillains that only radiate in UV. I think there were a few somewhat plausible ideas in there, too, LOL.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
This thread is entirely off topic, but slashdot needs a "+1 more interesting than the current subject" moderation. Thank you for the link.
Glad to be of service.
I have sever right eye trauma from an eye injury in high school. I have no lens in the eye. Ever since the injury, I can see UV as well. It makes rides at Disney suck - they are filled with depth enhancing black light, which, to me, is very bright and flooding, revealing the mechanics of the rides otherwise hid in "darkness."
Depending on the intensity, i can see a black light from around corners, behind houses, etc... sometimes. I have learned to ignore it, as it really does distract me.
Is there any ultraviolet paint ? You can mark trees, or anything else with the paint in such a way that makes it easily visible to only you!
Cheat in games! Do magic tricks! Write on the back of all the 52 cards . And "guess" which cards someone chose!
Mark your mobile phone, purse, suitcase etc. with UV stickers or permanent paint. You never know when this will be usefull.
Are both eyes operated on? if not, you can check what is visible to ultra violet or not , by doing a visual "diff" mentally between left and right eye and comparison.
Some coolng glass manufacturers claim UV protection. You can do preliminary tests if they truly protect? Also, if you arnt already using them, you could , to avoid spoiling your eyes in the out.
Some currency notes look different under UV light. You could probably use this to your advantage.
Also some dandruff and fungi are UV active. You should probably observe things and try to mention things you see to scientists.
Spot fake bills, etc..?
Congratulations, you can now see your remote control giving off a bright flash when buttons are pressed!
Note: UV-disabled people can simulate this by pointing a remote control directly into a cell phone camera, while they watch the video on the screen.
On 4chan /x/ there was a discussion on this topic. I don't recall all the details but taking doses of a vitamin b variant (or maybe beta carotene?) over a long period of time would allow you to see into the uv spectrum. It's not over the counter and expensive to synthesize though. Maybe some one else will have more details.
Isn't this the same guy who duped Slashdot, among many others, years ago with his Christmas light hoax? yawn.
I'd recommend that the OP join this list:
http://visionscience.com/mail/cvnet/cvnet.info.html
You could try getting a message posted out to people who work in perceptual psychology and visual neuroscience to see what they have to say about your condition. Some of them might even be local. Be careful not to come across as too crazy though!
Sorry but if your "rubbish shades" dont filter UV light then you need to buy all of them because it's made of Crystalline Quartz and are exceedingly expensive.
UV is filtered by 99.99786% of all transparent materiel. Only fools believe the "Filters UV radiation" label, as EVERYTHING filters UV radiation. It's like buying a stereo certified Digital TV antenna. a 3 foot piece of lamp cord is a stereo certified Digital TV antenna.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I poked around komar.org and found it somewhat eery. Clicked on the first link(cataract surgery), then scrolled down---Whooboy... There is a lot of family info, and some basic content, but the site has not been updated for years. There remains the descriptions of diseases, which is certainly sad, along with detailed walk-throughs of an evolutionary new cataract surgery. Humbly, I enquire: Is it relevant, or even appropriate, to post a Ask Slashdot question that is laden with links to obviously stale content which also happens to include all sorts of donation opportunities? Don't think I will be buying Dirk a beer anytime soon.
What color is it?
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
They do nothing!
No brain, no pain.
Black lights use filter glass in addition to the different phosphor. UV lights that just change the phosphor are used as bug lights (the light-blue you see in bug zappers); but the parts of the visible spectrum those emit is too bright to be used as black lights.
You're not "seeing" UV, your implanted lens is glowing purple when hit by UV. Its the same as "sensing" magnetic fields by implanting a magnet in your skin.
pity you didn't have this done 40 years ago. fading memory tells me you need to wear white and purple? and download some beegees
2. Point it at any standard digital camera (in a phone is fine.) Take a picture of it while pressing activating the UV (press the button on a remote control for IR)
3. The picture should have a bright light on it. Remember that location
4. Point the UV source (or remote control for IR) at your eye and activate Do you see that same bright light?
If you can see it, you can see Ultraviolet (or Infrared.)
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Share your gift with the world by taking a photograph with an ultraviolet-sensitive camera of whatever looks cool to you.
MOD PARENT UP
Wiping liquid from LCD screen.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
Thanks for the link. Very interesting.
Well horticulture would be a new hobby, as most flowering plants have uv sensitive coloringhttp://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/10/02/1937232/ask-slashdot-how-to-exploit-post-cataract-ultraviolet-vision# on them to attract insects etc..
Can you see octarine?
I have received the same Crystalens implant. Thanks for the explanation for all the weird colors I've been seeing. With the right sun angle oncoming car's windshields glow a color I've never seen before and some birds, like the hummingbirds that feed in our yard, also glow in strange new ways.
Nick
Make a cereal box spectrometer (I recommend using a piece cut from a sheet of plastic diffraction grating) and use it to look at the spectrum of a compact fluorescent lamp. Here's a table of mercury's spectrum. If you can see lines with wavelengths shorter than the 404.6 nm line then you can see UV. The 404.6nm line is on the far left. Seeing the 398.39 nm line might not count because it is so close to violet. If you can see the lines around 365 nm, then you can definitely see UV; however they may be too dim to see even if your eyes are able to detect those wavelengths.
CAPTCHA is "redneck," how appropriate, I r one.
Clothing is generally at least as opaque and/or randomly refracting in UV as in visible.
Some synthetics, though, are transparent in infrared. A few paparazzi have taken advantage of this by using IR film and snapping celebrities. If they happen to be wearing all IR-transparent clothing they look naked or dressed only in underwear (and slightly out-of-focus, since the longer wavelength results in visible issues that are just below eye resolution in visible wavelengths.)
Was a famous shot of a movie star debarking an airline via the roll-around stairway, published in a tabloid, a couple decades back.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Some birds have features in UV on their feathers used for courtship. See if you can spot 'em!
I had cataracts out too. Can also see much better into the UV than most. Actually, this is not very useful as the lenses do cut of UV a bit further than before but not that much. You can see blacklights but much more.
While UV sight seems like a cool "superpower" except for the blacklight thing there is not much difference to normal life. There are definite downsides as well:
a) You are now extremely sensitive to sunlight. Get a pair of good polorized glasses. That really makes a difference. I work for a company that makes testing equipment with really intenst lamps that can generate the same radiation as the sun indoors, and that lamp really a headache-induction machine.
b) After a while your lens might shift, and now one eye is not locked on infinity anymore. No more 3D films. Reading becomes a bitch. Invest in a monitor arm that allows you to quickly shift your screen around.
c) You are going to pay the college education of your optometrist when the lens shifts over time for reading glasses
d) Wanna buy a camera? MAke sure it has a viewfinder with a diopter adjustment, and small handheld point-and shoots become a hassle to use. Manual focus old cameras? Forget it.
e) One upside: When I have to clean house I can tell my missus that that I did not see the dust on the floor as I cannot focus there, and (usually) I am not lying
f) Another upside: I can buy an iPad and get it by the missus because it is much easier to read than books as you can increase the font size.
Another thing, you will have a layer of cells growing over your lens soon. this has to be burned off with a YaG laser. That is a really cool experience, it feels like an electric shock right in the middle of your brain.
In short, enjoy your new ultra-crisp sight, be careful in sunlight, get sunglasses and get annoyed by reading hassles and inability to focus you eyes up close.
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
You can test yourself with a spectrophotometer. If you open the lid and put a piece of paper interrupting the beam you can project a colored dot of a specific wavelength. Have a friend dial down the wavelength to below 400 and turn the machine off and on in a way that you're blind to. Then mark where your ability to differentiate off from on falls to chance levels. I found I can see to 350 nm in a normally lit room, perhaps more when it's dark?
Birds supposedly have UV vision, and some of their markings are for each other, and are more clearly distinguished by other birds that can see UV.
So you might consider observing birds and making sketches of their markings, much like the naturalists of 100 years ago, so that the rest of us can see what the birds can see of each other.
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats