Scientists have designed a method to kidnap the human eye, allowing it to see brand-new colors that are beyond the scope of natural human vision.
With this technique, researchers enabled five people to see a new color, dubbed “Olo”, which was described by the study participants as “blue-green of unprecedented saturation”. Researchers, some of whom participated in themselves, described their technology and new color, published in a study published in the journal on Friday (April 18). Science progress,
“The final goal is to provide programable controls on each photoreceptor (light-sensing cell) in the retina,” mainly for research purposes, the co-first author said. James fongA doctoral student in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. Fong told live science in an email, “Although it has not been achieved at that level, the method we present in the present study shows that many major principles are possible in practice.”
Controlling the retina at this granular level can open new ways to study vision, the researchers said. For example, scientists can use the system to repeat the effects of various eye diseases so that they can better understand the vision loss they can trigger. In theory, technology can also be used to simulate the full-color vision in those who are color-blind, essentially compensating for their missing or faulty photorisepters.
By using a system to introduce the brain for new visual data and retinal stimulation patterns, in principle, “it may be possible that this (color-blind) person will learn to see the new dimension of color,” Fong suggested.
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Yatra of Oz
Human Eyes Include light-sensitive cells, which are called photoreceptors, which come into two forms: rods and cones. Rods enable the night vision, as they respond to relatively low levels of photons, or packets electromagnetic radiation,
The cones handle in bright light, and they are specific to detect specific wavelengths of visible light – ie, red, green and blue. These three types of cones are named “L,” “M” and “S” respectively, in terms of long, medium and short wavelengths of the visual spectrum, in which they are the most sensitive.
Once the cone becomes active, the color depends on the vision Brain To explain the activation pattern of these three types of cells in the retina. Each pattern acts like a code, in which different codes unlock different perceptions of colors and intensity of light.
M cone is the most sensitive to green, but technically, they respond to a whole spectrum of colors that are completely overlap with Vevelanth L and S cones. For example, under natural conditions, you cannot activate the M cone without activating L and S cones. Scientists thought that what would happen if you can defy that rule and activate M cone, especially.
“We originally began the project to study especially M cone excitement,” Fong said. “But this quickly became clear to us () () the required underlying technology would be widely useful to study visual function at a new level of scale and accuracy.”
He named the resulting retinal stimulation technique “oz”, which pays homage to green tinted glasses, which people in Emerald City wear in the original “Wizard of Oz” books. The approach requires a wide map of each user’s retina. To make such maps, the researchers began by sewing together to take several videos of the retina and to catch the tissue.
From there, L, M and S cones were labeled; The location of these cells is unique in each individual’s retina, Fong said. To reveal the identity of each cone, the researchers used a technique called adaptive optics optical chain tomography (AO-OCT), which included shining lights on cells and measuring how they changed the shape; This reaction depends on the wavelength towards a cone is sensitive to the wavelength.
With a wide retina map, the team then carried out its experiments. Each participant sat in front of a performance with a small square in his center, where ooze stimulation came out. Stimulation targeted a specific type of cone with visual-wavelength laser light, called laser microdoses. Therefore, only to switch to the M cone, the system only targeted those cells with laser.
Scientists also used the real -time feed of the eye during the experiment, and the approach was responsible for the subtle motion of the eye, to ensure that the lesers hit their goals.
Make a new color
Only stimulating the M cone detected the color Olo, which refers to the coordination on the 3D map of the color – “0, 1, 0.” “O” is a void, which refers to the lack of stimulation of L and S cone, while “L” is a 1, which indicates complete stimulation of M cone. After stimulating the OLO in isolation, scientists were also able to include color in pictures and videos viewed by participants.
One way to imagine Olo is to think about light from a green laser pointer and then turn on saturation. Compared to OLO, monochromatic laser lights look “pel”, some participants said. Fong said, “It is very foreigner to imagine how something else can be saturated where it starts to look yellow than the laser,” Fong said.
Although oz can already carry forward the boundaries of human vision, its current setup has some limitations.
For example, participants cannot see directly on the oz display, Fong said, because the very few cones in the center of the retina are very few, making it difficult to make the laser light local. Because of this, in the study, people saw a certain point slightly away from the square and saw the ooze with their peripheral vision.
Eventually, oz can be potentially applied to Fowia-the central part of thentina that enables super-sharp vision-but “it will be an important challenge in behavior,” Fong said.
Another limit is that, currently, users should fix their gaze at one place to use oz, as scientists mapped only a small portion of the retina with thousands of cones, as proof of the concept. All the people will introduce “adequate technical challenges,” the authors have written in their paper by allowing people to move their gaze freely. This is because more of the retina will need to be mapped and the method to give microdoses will be exceptionally accurate in tracking eye movement.
Scientists are now searching for the idea of using oz to study and treat color blindness, as well as to stimulate the fourth type of cone cell experience. This occurs naturally in some people and results in a rare capacity TetrachromasiWhich increases their sensitivity to color. The team is also using oz to model various eye diseases.
Out of scientific research, oz can be theoretically used for everyday color display, such as in your television or phone screen – but this application is not very likely, Fong said.
“Our current method depends on highly specific lasers and optics that are definitely not coming on smartphones or TV at any time,” he said. So, for now, Olo will remain a rare color seen by only a few people.
