On the Fourier transform, retinal organization, and Edwin Land’s experiments
June 27th, 2005 | No Comments »It follows from the teaching of this work that the observed distribution of cones and rods on the biological retina that has evolved is the spatial representation of the electromagnetic spectrum of the visible band. To the physicist, this is the definition of the Fourier transform. This must have fundamental meaning to the process of vision (… and consciousness.?).
In viewing the organization of the retina, as one proceeds outward from the all-cone fovea, smaller diameter rods are continuously introduced until at seven degrees of retinal angle their number is sufficient to completely surround each cone… and this corresponds to geometrical mid-band. If the retina were acting as “photographic film” (as seems to have been the prevailing thought for a hundred years), some large number of receptor sizes would have evolved and they would have to have been placed in some logical order…… such as the “RGB triads” that form the face of a color cathode ray tube. Nature, however, found a simpler (and achievable) way, i.e., to use only two sizes of receptors in an admixed array ordered as above to create three geometric “optical antenna ” regions…corresponding to the “primary colors”. Then, as discovered by Land in measurements made external to the eye, these three regions detect light intensity (”brightness” or, as Land termed, “lightness”) at the three “primary” wavelengths and processes this information into the panoply of colored hues exactly as Land demonstrated in his black and white negative experiments.
