The visual system is a “funny” thing sometimes, which projects a variety of unique functions. These can be related to many things such as simply viewing the words on a large screen or understanding the depth cues that are presented within a simple piece of art. Many times they are designed within these paintings and images, which allow our eyes to adjust to the depth or even the overall artwork itself. Ever wonder why a flat canvas looks like it goes beyond the actual painting or frame? If its just a flat screen or piece of paper why do these objects or things look farther away then others, when really its only 3 feet from my face? It’s because of monocular and binocular depth cues. The image crosses both retinas in each eye, and is the same. There are certain times were there is retinal disparity or even convergence occurring as we look at these paintings or images. For artists, they have been able to create the impression of depth on a 2-dimensonial surface by using the depth cues in which create our visual perception within everyday society. When this occurs it happens so easily, and for us it occurs so frequently that it is never really noticed or appreciated. There are two types of monocular depth cues that depend only on what’s available on a certain page, which are pictorial depth cues. Additionally, there are those that rely on the perception of motion called motion parallax or relative motion. Shown in the images within this article you can see how your eyes will adjust accordingly. For the painting your eyes will observe all the little details within it, while you climb through the painting itself all the way to the very back at the horizon line. Whereas, the other photo illustrates how you eyes will focus on one specific image at a time, because they can’t generate both simultaneously. You will either see a vase or two people facing one another, but not together. Your eyes will simply shift back and forth between the two to produce the image. So next time you get lost in a painting or your eyes generate simple images for you, take a moment and say thanks a lot eye balls for being so awesome!

When i was a Junior in high school, i spent a good majority of the winter and spring touring the east coast with a group of 20 other kids my age, playing classic rock concerts everywhere we went. When i first got on stage, with amplifiers stacked behind me turned up to the highest volume and a drum set with microphones in or around every drum or cymbal, the loudness or intensity of the sound was a little overwhelming. I mostly sang when i was on stage, and it can be difficult to hear yourself when so much other noise is around you. The first time i performed on stage, i was blown away by the other instruments and i couldn’t stay in the right key or sing the right pitch. My ears became desensitized over time, and i adapted to be able to control my voice despite the roaring guitars and ground-shaking drums

In February of 2009, we went on stage with Napolean Murphy Brock, whom most of you are probably unfamiliar with. He played jazz flute and the saxophone for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, a progressive rock band. He was an experienced musician, and i sought to learn from him while performing together. At the first show we played together, i noticed he was wearing earplugs, and asked how he could handle dulling the band’s sound so much to his own ears while still putting on a good show. He told me if i didn’t where ear plugs, i would be deaf in 20 years of putting on loud concerts. Phil collins is a famous musician who thrived in the 70s and 80s, and put on shows until he was almost 60-years-old. In 2011, he announced he would never again be performing on stage, because he could go completely deaf if he suffers any more hearing damage.

I spoke to my father, who was a music guru as a young adult, and he told me about how he has a constant ringing in his left ear that never goes away. He went to a performance by The Who in 1979, who were widely renowned for how loud their shows were, and was standing in the second row, on the far left side, directly next to a giant speaker. He said the ringing started after that show, and he has had hearing problems ever since. I first noticed my father’s hearing impairment when i was boiling water in a tea kettle, and walked outside onto my deck to shovel snow. I heard the tea kettle whistle, and ignored it because i figured my father would remove it from the hot stove for me. After a couple minutes, the whistling did not end, and i walked inside to see my dad watching sports in the same room as the stove. I asked him if he could hear ‘that’, and he replied, ‘hear what?’ The pitch at which the tea kettle whistled was the same as the ringing in his ear that does not go away. I was astounded that he could not hear the piercing sound, and promised myself i would never let my hearing get that bad.

I began to wear earplug whenever i performed, and despite not getting the full effect of hearing each song we played, it did not impair my ability to sing, and more importantly did not damage my hearing. In class we discussed the poor hearing of our generation, mainly attributed to the widespread use of ear buds, but loud shows can have the same detrimental effect on one’s hearing. Whether you are on stage or in the crowd watching, it is very important to wear earplugs during the louder performances, because it reduces the impact of soundwaves entering the ear and prevents damage to the Stereocilia within the inner ear which are very precious. Stereocilia cannot be regenerated, and excessively loud noises will destroy them.

Take good care of your ears, because your hearing becomes worse each and every time your stereocilia are damaged or destroyed. Neil young, Pete Townshend of The Who, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck of The Rolling Stones, all have permanent damage to their hearing, and will tell you time and time again that they wish they had worn earplugs on stage.

What is attention? Seems like a simply question doesn’t it? However, no one can seem to give us a definitive answer. It is an arbitrary concept that our brain has seemed to master in order to take in information from our world. Most people think that they can attend to the whole environment around them and that they have a very vivid understanding of the world. Unfortunately for us, this is not true. Our attention is limited to only things that fall in the range of the fovea. Everything else is based on assumptions made by the brain. The reason we believe we can attend to everything is based on our ability to switch our attention from one thing to the next. We had several in class examples to show this. There were the videos where entire buildings were changed slowly but no one noticed until we looked at the original image. There were the gifs of pictures where one element changed. Even after watching the change right in front of us for 5 mins, it still had to be announced before everyone let out an audible “ooohhh!” It is both amazing and a little scary to think that we can miss things that are blatantly taking place right in front of us. It can make one wonder what else are we missing in our everyday life?

I have a picture in my room that I never really thought to much about until this post.  It has almost all of the depth cues which we learned about in class in the picture.  The picture is of my brother and I standing outside of my house that was drawn by an artist.  The first cue that I noticed was occlusion.  The house was obviously behind my brother and I because you could see our whole bodies, but not the whole house.  Part of the house is blocked by us and also trees that are between us and the house.  The next cue I noticed when looking at the picture was linear depth cue.  You could see the river behind the house meeting with the horizon and all the rest of the picture kind of going to one spot where it looks to all vanish.  The third depth cue I saw in the picture was atmosphere perspective.  You could see that the sun which was closer to the horizon looked much farther away than the house or my brother and I.  The clouds were higher up in the sky making them look closer.  Under the horizon you can see the river which is very close to it and the water looks like it is going very far out while the trees which are drawn lower in the picture seem to almost stick out more.  Other obvious depth cues that were in the picture were familiar size.  You know how big a person is compared to a house or even compared to the river.  We looked bigger because it was the main part of the picture making the house and river behind us look much smaller.  You can find these depth cues in almost all of the pictures you will see in your life.

This past summer I went on a trip to Paris, France and discovered first hand at the crime that occurred there. In many cities, pick pocketing is a problem, but in Paris pickpocketing is extremely common. Residents have learned to always carry purses close to their body and be aware of their surroundings. When I arrived in Paris, we took the subway called the Metro back to our hotel. I learned before my trip that many immigrants from poor African countries, who are very experienced pickpocketers also have children trained in this craft as well. My mom warned me to securely hold my bag on the Metro to make sure nothing got stolen, because often people leave the metro noticing that there is a hole in their purse or pocket, and there wallet often times is stolen without their awareness. When I was riding the metro to our hotel, I was nervous, because I had to keep an eye on both my backpack and suitcase. Meanwhile, I felt a little tug on my backpack and turned around to see the zipper open and a young boy’s hand about to grab my cellphone. Since my attention was focused on my bags on the subway, I noticed the tug, but if my attention had been directed on my mom and sister, I would probably not have noticed the boy opening my backpack zipper. I was frightened and shocked at how fast the boy did this. I have heard various stories of pick pocketers on these subways cutting into bags and even back pockets without people noticing, because there attention was directed somewhere else. It happens so quickly that people don’t notice until the pickpocketer vanishes into the crowd. This story relates to the concept of Selective attention. If people’s attention is directed on things like talking to friend and family while walking through the city or on the subway, they often miss other things going on in their environment.  The concept of selective attention is when attention is restricted to certain locations, objects, or times. For example, in class we watched the video we watched in class of the pick pocketer, the person’s object based and space based attention was directed on one thing while the pick pocketer stole the object that wasn’t being focused on. Pickpocketing is something that is not magic and can be easily learned by learning how to direct people’s attention or taking advantage of them when their attention is already focused on something else, such as on the Metro in Paris or walking through the city.