Acuity of Peripheral Vision (03-10-10)

All of us with healthy eyes have peripheral vision, and some designers consider peripheral views when planning spaces.  Restaurant designers, for example, often recognize that when diners see briskly moving waiters out of the corner of their eye, they start to eat more quickly, which can be bad for the bottom line in restaurants that make a lot of money on alcohol and desserts – so these designers shield views of waiters rushing to or from the kitchen.  New research has shown that our peripheral vision “regularizes” what is seen peripherally by just ignoring unusual inputs or visual “noise” – so the restaurant designers mentioned earlier are right on track –peripheral views matter.

John Greenwood, Peter Bex, and Steven Dakin.  “Crowding Changes Appearance.  Current Biology, in press.