Something I think is really interesting is that pinhole cameras can be used to model our own eyes! We can think of the our pupils as the pinhole as it is the hole that all light passes through, and the light passing through our pupils form an upside down and reversed image that is reflected onto our retinas. Our brains take these images and orients them in the correct way so that what we see is accurate to what we experience with our other senses. It's really amazing to me how our brains are able to do this translation for us in real-time and so quickly!
brandonlouie
When I first learned of pinhole cameras, I remember them being really hard to wrap my head around (the most confusing thing about it to me was why the image would be upside down). I think this video really helped me better understand the pinhole camera, and the pinhole camera they build as really cool as well: https://youtu.be/jhBC39xZVnw?si=4eVGTiN7nZm2sGr9
kalebdawit
Another cool thing about pinhole cameras is that they can be a helpful analogy of X-ray imaging systems. Because no material at X-ray energies have an index of refraction greater than 1, we can't make a spherical or parabolic lens. As a result, medical imaging relies on pinhole camera imaging systems. Although they have great resolution, a drawback here is that we sacrifice signal to noise ratio because a lot of the light we're measuring is filtered out.
Something I think is really interesting is that pinhole cameras can be used to model our own eyes! We can think of the our pupils as the pinhole as it is the hole that all light passes through, and the light passing through our pupils form an upside down and reversed image that is reflected onto our retinas. Our brains take these images and orients them in the correct way so that what we see is accurate to what we experience with our other senses. It's really amazing to me how our brains are able to do this translation for us in real-time and so quickly!
When I first learned of pinhole cameras, I remember them being really hard to wrap my head around (the most confusing thing about it to me was why the image would be upside down). I think this video really helped me better understand the pinhole camera, and the pinhole camera they build as really cool as well: https://youtu.be/jhBC39xZVnw?si=4eVGTiN7nZm2sGr9
Another cool thing about pinhole cameras is that they can be a helpful analogy of X-ray imaging systems. Because no material at X-ray energies have an index of refraction greater than 1, we can't make a spherical or parabolic lens. As a result, medical imaging relies on pinhole camera imaging systems. Although they have great resolution, a drawback here is that we sacrifice signal to noise ratio because a lot of the light we're measuring is filtered out.