GETTY; IMAGESHumans see the world three kinds of
cone cells (receptors used for colour
vision) that give us the world, usually
in reasonable focus, in red, green, blue
(RGB) colour. It can be easy to overlook
how different life looks from a different
perspective.
Diurnal birds have an extra cone cell
that’s sensitive to UV wavelengths.
Additionally, each cone contains
a drop of oil that acts in a similar
fashion to a camera lens, allowing
them to better differentiate hues.Sharks are much more
sensitive to light, but
lack the receptor cells
to see in colour – prey in
monochrome.Composed of thousands of individual
optical receptors called ommatidia,
a fly’s compound eyes can’t focus
with anything like humanaccuracy,
but they allow a 360-degree view
and are awfully good at picking up
the slightest of movements – such as
someone trying to swat their owner.Snakes are dichromatic – they see in
two primary colours, blue and green.
Most types are sensitive to UV light,
and some species also have vision in
infra-red, allowing them to heat-seek
as well.Computer vision, or CV, is
the field of study aimed
to get computers to “see”
and interpret imagery such
as photographs and video.
Allinformation, no matter how
complex, is stored by binary
combination: 1 or 0.PICTURE THIS
26 – COSMOS Issue 86
2020 vision
BIRD VISION SHARK VISION