I went to an IMAX cinema many years ago. I can't remember exactly what the film was about, possibly about ice or fish or something like that. I don't even remember why I went but do remember feeling weird while sitting in front of what was really an unfeasibly massive screen.
It really was unfeasible. I had the impression of missing something important every time I tried to follow a fish (or maybe a lump of ice) at the top of the screen, certain that something interesting was possibly happening at the bottom of the screen.
As it turned out nothing interesting was happening anywhere on screen. But that's not the point.
The point is that the eyes can only see so much. It's like this. An LCD screen has a maximum viewing angle, so if you walk too far to the side beyond a certain point you can't see the screen anymore. Likewise stereo sound only works if you are in the cone-shaped sound-field produced by a stereo-sound device, like a hi-fi system.
Surely the eyes have a physical limit, some point beyond which the eyes can't actually see what is going on. The ears have such a limit, ranging somewhere from sounds around 6 or so cycles per second (for deep sounds) to around ten thousand cycles per second for higher pitched sounds. I won't get into a debate about the actual technicalities here and how some people can hear a wider range of sounds. The point is that the ears are in fact physically limited.
So I'm wondering what the limit is on the eyes. Is there a visual field of perception within which we can see stuff, and beyond which although we think we can see perfectly well, in truth we can't.
And at the same time the TV sets of the future just keep getting bigger and bigger. 50 inch plasma on the wall in your home, you might be lucky to be able to sit there and watch everything and hope your eyes can take it all in.
Does anybody know what the limit is and whether these large TVs are approaching the point yet where the screen is impressive but the average person can only actively follow part of it because it's just too big.
It really was unfeasible. I had the impression of missing something important every time I tried to follow a fish (or maybe a lump of ice) at the top of the screen, certain that something interesting was possibly happening at the bottom of the screen.
As it turned out nothing interesting was happening anywhere on screen. But that's not the point.
The point is that the eyes can only see so much. It's like this. An LCD screen has a maximum viewing angle, so if you walk too far to the side beyond a certain point you can't see the screen anymore. Likewise stereo sound only works if you are in the cone-shaped sound-field produced by a stereo-sound device, like a hi-fi system.
Surely the eyes have a physical limit, some point beyond which the eyes can't actually see what is going on. The ears have such a limit, ranging somewhere from sounds around 6 or so cycles per second (for deep sounds) to around ten thousand cycles per second for higher pitched sounds. I won't get into a debate about the actual technicalities here and how some people can hear a wider range of sounds. The point is that the ears are in fact physically limited.
So I'm wondering what the limit is on the eyes. Is there a visual field of perception within which we can see stuff, and beyond which although we think we can see perfectly well, in truth we can't.
And at the same time the TV sets of the future just keep getting bigger and bigger. 50 inch plasma on the wall in your home, you might be lucky to be able to sit there and watch everything and hope your eyes can take it all in.
Does anybody know what the limit is and whether these large TVs are approaching the point yet where the screen is impressive but the average person can only actively follow part of it because it's just too big.
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