Monday, July 15, 2013

What is the resolution in megapixels of human eye?

Before we get this answer, it's important to understand how a human eye works!

Manuel Menezes de Oliveira Neto, PhD in Computer Science and a professor at UFRGS explains that thought the fast movements the eye scans the scene continuously and sends this information to the brain, which matches and composes the images.

For each degree field of vision, the eye makes 77 "cycles". According to the methodology of a study published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology, two pixels are needed to define a cycle, totaling - the complicated mathematics of vision - 154 pixels for each degree field of view. Thus, for example, if we consider the image perceived by one who observes a scene with a visual field of 120 degrees both horizontally and vertically, there would be: 120 x 154 x 120 x 154 = 341.5 megapixels.

So if we compare this capacity with the latest camera models in the market, it's by far a huge difference that will take a couple years to have a similar power. Interesting, isn't it?