P3D Vertical eye placement?

[Joel Bass <joel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Okay, here's an odd little question, but one y'all might find enjoyable:
How would one's vision be different if one's eyes were stacked VERTICALLY
rather than being arranged horizontally on one's face?

Obviously this is a very abstract and theoretical question: as it is, none
of us can see through anyone else's eyes, and if someone (or everyone) were
born with their eyes vertically situated, their vision would not appear
strange to them - the brain would make the most of it, as usual.

It is a curious idea, though - obviously a great deal of depth information
comes from the triangulation of the two eyes and whatever one is looking
at; that's what 3D is about. It seems to me that we get a lot more
information about horizontal differences in depth, though, than vertical
differences. For example, our vision works best when telling which tree is
in front of which other tree. We can see slightly around corners to the
left or right, but NOT around the tops or bottoms of things. Does this make
sense?

Since there are other depth cues, such as perspective and so on, our brains
suffer very little for this lack of vertical depth information. And a
symmetrical organism is almost always easier for nature to design. But I've
long been curious about how different the world would look if our two eyes
were vertically placed, or - even better - if we had three eyes in a neat
triangle.

There's today's silly idea - I'd very much like to hear your expert
opinions on it.

- Joel Bass
http://www.crunchygods.com



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