Let’s take a look at what the world looks like through the eyes of people with myopia and astigmatism.

Strictly speaking, none of us can directly see the world through the eyes of others . The principle of vision is that external light (direct light source or reflected light source) enters the human eye , stimulates our cones and rods in the retina to form electrical signals , which are transmitted to the visual cortex of the occipital lobe of the brain through the optic nerve , making us "feel" that we see .

In fact, not only can we not perceive the world in other people's eyes , we can't even judge whether the world itself really exists . Because other senses are the same as vision, all of which are various sensory organs (ears, noses, tongues, etc.) that "tell" the brain through neural electrical signals that we have heard, smelled, and tasted . Suppose our brain is soaked in nutrient solution by a crazy scientist, filled with electrodes, and given the same neural electrical signal stimulation , then we will still think that we live in the real world. This is the famous "brain in a vat" hypothesis, which is also the idea in the science fiction movie "The Matrix".

I have gone off topic. I have laid out all this because Dr. Jingcai believes that this article is not strictly a popular science article . I can only say that it is roughly the same idea . Through simple image processing technology , people without myopia or astigmatism can roughly feel the world through the eyes of patients with myopia or astigmatism.

Let’s first look at myopia. Myopia is when an image of an object is formed in front of the retina , causing blurry vision. The higher the degree, the blurrier it is .

Astigmatism is the inconsistency of the refractive power in different meridian directions of the eye , so that it cannot focus on a clear point on the retina, but on two focal lines at different positions , causing problems such as seeing double images . Of course, the actual situation of astigmatism is more complicated , but here is just a general idea .

Take note: Children under 6 years old or younger who have myopia or astigmatism may not tell their parents. Parents should take their children to the hospital or optometry clinic for a checkup at least once a year.

If this article is helpful to you, you are welcome to share it with other parents. Maybe they also need it. Thank you.

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About Dr. Jingcai: The creators of Dr. Jingcai's popular science content all have a professional background in ophthalmology, a master's degree or above, and are former ophthalmologists. For some popular science content with a higher degree of professionalism, we will also invite working ophthalmologists and optometry experts to review and check it, striving to be responsible for the accuracy of the content and avoid misleading readers.