Post History
What would be differently perceived from a person with broader visual spectrum than normal? So I've seen this question, especially the accepted answer, and it certainly is not what I'm looking for...
#1: Post edited
by
Monica Cellio
·
2020-06-02T01:00:01Z (over 4 years ago)
no need to keep a historical link to a sandbox on another site
<p>[<strong>Note:</strong> this question was posted on <a href="https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/a/5731/7974">Sandbox]</a></p><p>What would be differently perceived from a person with broader visual spectrum than normal?</p><p>So I've seen this <a href="https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/91230/how-would-it-affect-a-human-to-suddenly-have-the-visual-senses-of-a-martial-eagl">question</a>, especially the accepted answer, and it certainly is not what I'm looking for. The question asks for a man with the eyes of martial eagle. The answer, likewise, considers the acuity of a martial eagle's eyes, or any predatory bird in general. Likewise, most answers account for increased fidelity of the image from those eyes. What I'm looking for is more specific on the effect it has to have a broader visual spectrum.</p><p>In my scenario a particular person has a visible light spectrum of ~300nm to ~800nm, and is living his daily life among normal humans. How he acquires the ability is not important, and he has no difficulties dealing with processing the information, etc. This person lives in a normal human city at around 2000s, and does sometimes travel. Due to his acuity of vision happening to overlap with that of a normal person, he can easily distinguish normal human color, and also beyond.</p><p>Therefore the scope of this question is what is normally invisible for humans, but visible from the perspective of this person in:</p><ul><li>normal, daily urban life environment. Especially concerning day-to-day interactions</li><li>in a medical setting - the person in question is a doctor</li><li>in a forest</li><li>when observing stones or geographical formation normally found in tours through areas with a relatively active volcanic, for example <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijen" rel="noreferrer">Ijen Crater</a></li></ul><p>Here's what I know and some that I don't so far.</p><ol><li><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet" rel="noreferrer">Near ultraviolet</a>, that is on the spectrum of around 300nm-400nm is what is normally visible to birds, insects and fish. Some people with a condition known as <em>Aphakia</em> or missing lens, or those who possess artificial lenses can see in this spectrum, and they describe it as whitish blue or violet (I found it <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphakia" rel="noreferrer">here</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet" rel="noreferrer">there</a>; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2002/may/30/medicalscience.research" rel="noreferrer">this</a> and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2466/pms.1983.57.3f.1211" rel="noreferrer">this</a> are a few of the cited sources). <strong><em>Still that's as far as I know.</em></strong> Perhaps the most interesting thought I have is that this person can probably see sunblock as a translucent layer over the skin of the wearer, instead of transparent as we see it, but I can't be sure. Also I know that some stones are fluorescent, but most sites (almost all I found) only describe them as minerals that absorb UV lights and emit visible light. I am not interested in this. What I'm interested in is what the stones would look like for this person.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared" rel="noreferrer">Near infrared</a>, that is on the spectrum of around 750nm-1400nm. But apparently normally used in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-infrared_spectroscopy" rel="noreferrer">near infrared spectroscopy</a> is light on the range of 780nm-2500nm. Previously I expected him to be capable of full night vision, but apparently this is not the case. Still, I have no idea on whether or not he would fare better at night than a normal person, or, how much better he is. Also I once found it in the net that a fart is basically hot air, and probably visible at infrared, but I am not sure on what spectrum a fart would be visible.</p></li></ol>
- <p>What would be differently perceived from a person with broader visual spectrum than normal?</p>
- <p>So I've seen this <a href="https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/91230/how-would-it-affect-a-human-to-suddenly-have-the-visual-senses-of-a-martial-eagl">question</a>, especially the accepted answer, and it certainly is not what I'm looking for. The question asks for a man with the eyes of martial eagle. The answer, likewise, considers the acuity of a martial eagle's eyes, or any predatory bird in general. Likewise, most answers account for increased fidelity of the image from those eyes. What I'm looking for is more specific on the effect it has to have a broader visual spectrum.</p>
- <p>In my scenario a particular person has a visible light spectrum of ~300nm to ~800nm, and is living his daily life among normal humans. How he acquires the ability is not important, and he has no difficulties dealing with processing the information, etc. This person lives in a normal human city at around 2000s, and does sometimes travel. Due to his acuity of vision happening to overlap with that of a normal person, he can easily distinguish normal human color, and also beyond.</p>
- <p>Therefore the scope of this question is what is normally invisible for humans, but visible from the perspective of this person in:</p>
- <ul>
- <li>normal, daily urban life environment. Especially concerning day-to-day interactions</li>
- <li>in a medical setting - the person in question is a doctor</li>
- <li>in a forest</li>
- <li>when observing stones or geographical formation normally found in tours through areas with a relatively active volcanic, for example <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijen" rel="noreferrer">Ijen Crater</a></li>
- </ul>
- <p>Here's what I know and some that I don't so far.</p>
- <ol>
- <li><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet" rel="noreferrer">Near ultraviolet</a>, that is on the spectrum of around 300nm-400nm is what is normally visible to birds, insects and fish. Some people with a condition known as <em>Aphakia</em> or missing lens, or those who possess artificial lenses can see in this spectrum, and they describe it as whitish blue or violet (I found it <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphakia" rel="noreferrer">here</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet" rel="noreferrer">there</a>; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2002/may/30/medicalscience.research" rel="noreferrer">this</a> and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2466/pms.1983.57.3f.1211" rel="noreferrer">this</a> are a few of the cited sources). <strong><em>Still that's as far as I know.</em></strong> Perhaps the most interesting thought I have is that this person can probably see sunblock as a translucent layer over the skin of the wearer, instead of transparent as we see it, but I can't be sure. Also I know that some stones are fluorescent, but most sites (almost all I found) only describe them as minerals that absorb UV lights and emit visible light. I am not interested in this. What I'm interested in is what the stones would look like for this person.</p></li>
- <li><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared" rel="noreferrer">Near infrared</a>, that is on the spectrum of around 750nm-1400nm. But apparently normally used in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-infrared_spectroscopy" rel="noreferrer">near infrared spectroscopy</a> is light on the range of 780nm-2500nm. Previously I expected him to be capable of full night vision, but apparently this is not the case. Still, I have no idea on whether or not he would fare better at night than a normal person, or, how much better he is. Also I once found it in the net that a fart is basically hot air, and probably visible at infrared, but I am not sure on what spectrum a fart would be visible.</p></li>
- </ol>