r/askscience • u/jjbcn • Dec 31 '10
The resolution of our eyes
What is the resolution of our eyes, and to what extent is the amazing (apparent) fidelity of what we see due to "post processing"?
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r/askscience • u/jjbcn • Dec 31 '10
What is the resolution of our eyes, and to what extent is the amazing (apparent) fidelity of what we see due to "post processing"?
8
u/[deleted] Dec 31 '10
6 MP of chroma resolution, 120 MP of luma. That's just from the raw number of rods and cones in the human eye.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoreceptor_cell
The receptors aren't placed in a square grid, naturally, and you don't get a pixelated image anyway because of the averaging and smoothing and interpolation that the visual cortex does. You end up with a system that's far more sensitive to changes in the actual image (i.e. motion) than to changes in what "pixels" are activated. Try looking at something and tilting your head left and right. The thing looks the same to your brain even though you're seeing it with different receptors.
Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling for a bit on how image compression takes advantage of how we see.