I’m in Belleville today and I did a classic mall run with Arjun and Tony. We did half a lap and we ran into none other than Jordan C, Jason N, Chris B and Dave B. We hung around a bit and talked until we sat down at which point we continued to talk and catch up on each other’s lives. Chris brought up the topic of blind spots that everyone has. No, not the blind spot while you’re driving. A blind spot for your actual eye! Everyone has one…for each eye. So we spent the next 5 minutes playing around looking for ours by closing 1 eye and moving a finger around within our field of view until it disappeared. Once you find it you can even wiggle the finger and you can’t see it wiggling! I found my blind spot at about 7-10 degrees off the center of my view, at about eye level.
To make it easier for you to find your blind spot, check out the handy image below that I made just for you! Close your left eye, stare at either of the + signs on the left side and move your head closer or farther away from the screen until the black circle on the right disappears! You’ll probably find it when your face is just over a foot from the screen. Try it with either the top or bottom set! Same thing.
The reason why I have two sets of the same thing – one with a white background, and one with a blue background – is to show that your brain actually fills in the blind spot with what it thinks should go there. So when it’s surrounded by white, it thinks it’s probably white and similarly when surrounded by blue.
Isn’t that the coolest thing ever? Yeah I thought so. Or maybe I’m just crazy for having had way too much fun staring off in the distance and wiggling a finger for 5 minutes in the middle of a mall.
For the scientific explanation, go here.
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