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Copyright 2019 by András Péter
E-Mail: [email protected]
This site was created to provide a web based image processing tool that can be used to demonstrate the differences in visual perception between humans and dogs. The Dog Vision tool can only show the differences that can be visualized on a static image:
The user can upload an image and then apply the modifications corresponding
to any of the three perceptual differences above. The effect of each perceptual
difference can be applied separately or in any combination. There are numerous
other differences between the visual perception of humans and dogs. For an
excellent review see the article from Miller & Murphy 1995[1] or for a shorter summary Miller & Lights
2001[2].
Below you'll find some information about the visual perception of dogs and
technical details about how the image processing tool works. If you would like
to use the tool right away click here!
Dogs are not completely color blind since they have a dichromatic color
perception. Unlike humans who have three different color sensitive cone cells
in their retina (red, green and blue) dogs have only two (yellow and blue)[3,4].
This does not mean that dogs can't see green or red objects! It only means that they
can't distinguish green, yellow or red objects based on their color. However
they can still distinguish a red ball from a green one if there is a difference
in the perceived brightness of the two.
The color vision of dogs is similar to a person suffering from deuteranopia
(red-green color blindness). Red, yellow and green are perceived as one hue.
Blue and purple are perceived as a second
hue. Cyan and magenta are perceived as a
neutral hue (grey).
The image below shows a full RGB spectrum and how the same colorline would be
perceived by a dog.
Human's
view
Dog's view
Brightness discrimination is the ability to differentiate between different
shades. It is measured by determining the smallest discernible difference in
brightness (ΔR) between two stimuli compared to the absolute brightness
(R) of the brighter stimulus (ΔR/R = Weber fraction). The Weber fraction
calculated for humans is 0.11[5] whereas the
Weber fraction for dogs is 0.22][6]. Thus
the brightness discrimination of dogs is about 2 times worse than that of
humans.
This means for example that certain shades of gray that humans perceive as
different are perceived as the same shade by dogs. The image below illustrates
this effect by showing a set of rectangles with differing brightness, and the same set with halved relative brightness.
Human's
view
Dog's view
Visual acuity is a measure of the spatial resolution of the visual system.
It is often measured in cycles per degree (CPD), which measures how much an eye
can differentiate one object from another in terms of visual angles. The
maximum visual acuity of the human eye is around 50 CPD[7] and 60 CPD[8]. The measurements of dogs' visual acuity
vary around 7.5-9 CPD[9] and 11.6 CPD[10]. According to these measurements dogs' visual
acuity is 4 to 8 times worse than that of humans.
Choosing the amount by which the visual acuity should be decreased depends on
many factors: the angle of view of the image, the resolution of the image, dpi
ratio of the screen on which the image is viewed and the distance from which
the screen is viewed. Under average conditions if the picture's resolution is
equal to the resolution of the screen that it is viewed on then by reducing the
visual acuity by a factor of 5 is a good approximation.
The image below shows a black and white grating with a bar width of 1 to 7
pixels. The effect of visual acuity reduced by a factor of 2 to 8 can be
observed on the horizontal bands stacked above each other.
Original
Visual acuity reduced by a factor of 2
Visual acuity reduced by a factor of 3
Visual acuity reduced by a factor of 4
Visual acuity reduced by a factor of 5
Visual acuity reduced by a factor of 6
Visual acuity reduced by a factor of 7
Visual acuity reduced by a factor of 8
Image with smiling dog taken from: http://axon-axoff.tumblr.com/post/7340439912
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