Scientists have invented a way to kidnap the human eye, allowing it to see new colors that go beyond the range of natural human vision.
With this technique, the researchers enabled five people to see a new color called “Olo”, and the study participants described it as “blue from unprecedented saturation.” The researchers, some of whom participated in the experience themselves, described their style and the new color in a study published on Friday (April 18) in the magazine Science progress.
“The ultimate goal is to provide programming control over all light receptors [light-sensing cell] In the retina, “in the first place for search purposes, the first participant said James FungPhD in the University of California, Berkeley. “Although this has not been achieved to this level, the way we present in the current study shows that many of the main principles are possible in practice,” Fung told Live Science in an email.
The researchers said that controlling the retina at this granular level could open new ways to study vision. For example, scientists can use the system to repeat the effects of various eye diseases to better understand the visual loss that leads to it. In theory, this technique can also be used to simulate full color vision in people who baptize colors, mainly compensate for their lost or defective light receptors.
Using the system to introduce the brain into new visual data and patterns of stimulation of the retina, theoretically, “this may be possible [color-blind] Fung suggested that a person learn to see the new dimension of colors. “
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A trip to Oz
Human eyes It contains light -sensitive cells, called light receptors, which come in two forms: bars and moon. The bars allow a night vision, because they respond to relatively low levels of photons, or beams from Electromagnetic radiation.
The cones are in bright light, and it specializes in discovering specific wavelengths of visible light – which are red, green and blue. These three types of consecutive cones are called “L”, “M” and “S”, referring to the long, medium and short wavelengths of the visible spectrum that is more sensitive.
Once the cones are activated, seeing the color depends on brain To explain the patterns of activating these three types of cells across the retina. Each style works like a symbol, with different symbols that float different perceptions of colors and light density.
Technically, it is the most sensitive to the green, but technically, it responds to a full range of colors that completely overlap with the L -and S. and S. As such, in natural conditions, you cannot activate the M conicon without activating the L and S conversations as well. Scientists wondered what would happen if you could challenge this rule and activate the M conical exclusively.
“We originally started this project specifically to study the motivation of the cone,” said Fung. “But soon it became clear to us [the] The basic technology required will be widely useful for studying visual function at a new level of size and accuracy. “
They called the resulting network stimulation technology “OZ”, in a greeting of green -colored glasses that people wear in the city of emerald in the original “Oz” books. The approach requires a detailed map of each retina. To create such a map, researchers began taking multiple videos of the retina and sewing them together to take the tissue shape.
From there, the L, M and S cones have been classified; Fung indicated that the sites of these cells are unique in the retina for each person. To detect the identity of each cone, researchers used a technique called CTan of Adaptive Optical Optics (AO-Oct), which included the light on cells and measuring how to change the shape; This response varies depending on the conical wavelengths sensitive to.
With a detailed network map, the team then performed their experiments. Each participant sat in front of a screen with a small box in the middle, as it reveals OZ motivation. Motivation targets specific types of cones with visible wavelength laser light, called Microdoses laser. Therefore, to operate only on M conic, the system only targeted those cells with the laser.
Scientists also used the actual time of the eye during the experiment, and the approach was explaining the microscopic eye movement, to ensure the laser reaching their goals.
Revealing a new color
The Mets of Meshri M only revealed Olo, whose name refers to coordinates on a 3D map of color – “0, 1, 0.” “O” is zero, indicating the absence of L and S conicals, while “L” is 1, which indicates the full stimulation of the C.
One of the ways to imagine Olo is to think about the light from the green laser index and then lift the saturation. Some participants said that a monochrome laser light seems to be “pale” laser light. “It is very strange for me to imagine how something else can be saturated enough for a place that starts to search for pale comparison,” Fung said.
Although OZ can already pay the limits of human vision, it has some restrictions in its current preparation.
For example, the participants cannot look directly on the Oz screen, as Fong pointed out, because the cones in the center of the retina are very small, making it difficult to localize the laser light. For this reason, people in the study saw Oz with their peripheral vision by looking at a fixed point away from the square.
Ultimately, OZ can be applied to the click-the central part of the retina that allows the Super Sharp-but “it will be a big challenge in practice,” said Fung.
There are other restrictions that, users must currently fix their view in one place to use OZ, because scientists only set a small part of the retina that contains thousands of cones, as evidence of the concept. The authors wrote in their paper that allowing people to change their view freely would provide “great technical challenges”. This is because more eye retina should be set and that the Microdoses method should be unusually accurate in tracking eye movement.
Scientists are now exploring the idea of using Oz to study and treat color blindness, as well as to stimulate the experience of having a fourth type of cone cell. This happens naturally in some people and leads to a rare capacity called QuadrupleWhich enhances its sensitivity to the color. The team also uses Oz to model of various eye diseases.
Outside scientific research, OZ can be used theoretically on daily displays, such as those on TV or phone – but this application seems very unlikely, Fung said.
He said: “Our current way depends on lasers and specialized optics that do not certainly come to smartphones or televisions any time soon.” So, at the present time, Olo will remain a rare color that sees only a few.