Visualfilter for experiments in learning

Most photographers who've used a variety of different camera formats are familiar with the upside-down, and backwards coordinate transformations. After spending much of the day under the heavy black cloth, looking at the ground glass, one sees the real-world as upside-down. In fact, since the image on the retina really is upside down, why not look at the world that way?

And of course, I can see others as they see themselves in the mirror. And then when I look in the mirror myself, I'd see a non-reversed version of myself. Learning to read this way takes more time, I find, than upside-down reading, probably because I've used a view camera for many years, and not done too much medium-format (2.25 inch) work, where the cameras present things backwards. I can read upside-down almost as fast as rightside-up, but my backwards reading is a little slow. A sideways world is kind of fun too, but I get tired of the simple `` deflection-yoke'' coordinate transformations.

Visualfilter for experiments in understanding visual handicaps

The visual filter also makes it possible to synthesize (and therefore better understand) various problems encounted by the visually handicapped. For example, running live video through a blurring kernel makes it immediately obvious that many of the signs and other writing are hard to read, while it is still possible to find my way into my office. Walking around for a day with such a blurring kernel makes it very easy to identify the sorts of problems encounted by someone suffering from this kind of impairment. The visual filter can also easily synthesize other visual defficiencies like the inability to see well in the dark, or the inability to see well in bright light.

You can also live in a negated world, (as though everything is a photographic negative), by computationlly negating the video, or by building a video negation system.

Wearable Webcam