PERIPHERAL VISION.

Auckland Star, 2 September 1933, Page 11 (Supplement)

PERIPHERAL VISION.

"OUT OF THE CORNER OF THE EYE." ASSET TO MOTORISTS. Seeing something "out of the corner of the eye" is of such importance that, in tlio opinion of C. A. Parenteau, whose business it is to work out curves of lenses for the Bausch and Lomb laboratories in Kochester, New York, it j may be desirable to consider it in granting automobile licenses. "Peripheral vision" is the scientific designation of this method of seeing. A man who cannot see out of the corner of his eye is far more of a highway menace than he realises. He is unaware of a car approaching from a side road, and when the inevitable crash comes naturally protests that he was 1 looking straight ahead, as he is supposed to look. Peripheral vision, which is effective within a total range of 180 degrees, is especially sensitive to moving objects. Because of it the brain registers things which we are scarcely conscious of having seen. It is thus that Dr. Parenteau explains why we suddenly remember a house or a friend, although at the time we were unaware of having seen either. He holds that lack or curtailment of peripheral vision explaine some automobile accidents in which even cautious drivers play their part.