Infinitely Distant

A conundrum—you can estimate the focal length of a positive lens by using it to project the image of a distant scene onto the wall in a darkened room. But if you try to do it by placing the lens, a focal length away from an illuminated object and looking for the point where to produces a lens-filling collimated beam, you don’t get the correct length. When you’re figuring out the behavior of images in an optical system meant to be viewed with the human eye, don’t forget to include the optics of the eye itself.

Preferred skin reproduction centres for different skin groups

Producing preferred skin colours is vital for the digital images on mobile phone manufacturers. Previous studies investigated the skin colours only in chromatic plane excluding lightness. A psychophysical experiment was conducted to determine preferred skin colour centres for different skin colour types on mobile displays in a darkened room. Ten facial images were selected for the experiment to cover different skin colour types (Caucasian, Oriental, South Asian and African). A set of 49 predetermined colour centres uniformly sampled within the skin colour ellipsoid in CIELAB colour space was used to morph skin colours of test images. Thirty observers from each of the 3 ethnic groups (Caucasian, Oriental and South Asian) participated in the experiment. The preferred skin colour centre and region in the form of ellipsoid for each skin group were reported. It was found that the preferred colour centres from different skin colour types were very similar except their lightness as expected, and were also quite similar between the observers from different ethnic groups.

Binding Matters

This visual essay introduces and critically reflects on a creative research project entitled ‘Spectra on the edge of embodiment,’ undertaken as part of my Master of Fine Art study in 2017 at the College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand. The project was motivated by several questions and concerns: What is the being that is human? How does it interact with the space it occupies? Through a work of art, is it possible to convey to a viewer the metacognitive perceptions I have propagated in connecting to my interiority and how it interfaces with the world? The work took the form of an immersive spatial installation including multiple video projections accompanied by a sound loop. Occupying a darkened room within a gallery setting, it animated uniform wall surfaces and corner spaces. The video imagery originated from textural surfaces, detritus, fluids and other such flotsam and jetsam reminiscent of interior anatomies, compelling viewers to linger and wonder what the body might look like from the inside. Such a detailed imaginary view of the body’s interior environment stems from extensive cadaver studies that I undertook as part of my training as a physiotherapist.

A NEW METHOD OF ASSESSMENT ZONULAR LENS

Purpose. To compare the wave front aberrations and their changes under the action of cycloplegia in eyes with myopia and hyperopia. Material and methods. We examined 46 patients: 20 (39 eyes) with myopic (average -5.2±1.5 D) and 26 patients (53 eyes) with hyperopic refraction (mean refraction +3,1±1,15 D) aged 5 - 17 years (average 11.6±0.6 years). All the patients underwent aberrometry in a darkened room before and after medical cycloplegia (instillations of 1% cyclopentolate dihydrochloride twice, with an interval of 10 minutes, aberrometry in 40 minutes after the first instillation) with the aberrometer divice OPD-ScanIII, Nidek. Result. Significant differences: horizontal trefoil (C8) and horizontal coma (C7) before cycloplegia in myopia was significantly higher, and their changes under cycloplegia significantly lower or absent. The difference of these aberrations, with are associated with the dislocation of the crystalline lens, decentration of the optical elements of the eye, provides the evidence of weak zonular tension in the eyes with myopia. The method of assessing zonular on the dynamics of the polynomias C8 and C7 in the background of cycloplegia was developed. Conclusion. The developed method of indirect assessment of the condition of the zonular lens according to the comparative aberrometry before and after cycloplegia recommended for prognosis of postnatal refraktogenesis and evaluation of progressive myopia treatment effectiveness.

Co-Creating Museum Exhibits of the Immigrant Experience

On the evening of January 28, 2013 we—the authors—sat in a darkened room at the local library in Hyattsville, Maryland, waiting a little anxiously for the third documentary film of the evening. We did not necessarily expect this film to be the most entertaining or thought-provoking, but it was more meaningful to us because we had been a part of its creation. The faces that would soon be moving across the screen were familiar. They were people we had interviewed, and, in some cases, these interviewees had become our friends. The participants, whose stories formed the subject matter of the film, saturated the sterile-sounding term "the immigrant experience" with strong individual voices and poignant details from their lives. Some of these participants were in the audience.