Chapter 1. Vision System Design

A. Importance  of 
eyes - How and why 
we see? 
1. How we see
2. Why we see

B. Optics and image 
processing requirements in Biological eyes
1. Brain intelligence 
2. Brain-guided eye 
platform
3. Hardware and 
software interactions
4. Eye arrangement for 
stereo vision

C. Optical system 
designs in Biological eyes

Chapter 2. Biological Eye 
 Designs

Chapter 3.
Eye Design 
Illustrations

Chapter 4. Eye 
Reproduction

Chapter 5. Optical 
Systems Design 

Chapter 6. The 
Eye Designer

Related Links

Appendix A - Slide Show & Conference Speech by Curt Deckert

Appendix B - Conference Speech by Curt Deckert

Appendix C - Comments From Our Readers

Appendix D - Panicked Evolutionists: The Stephen Meyer Controversy
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

EYE DESIGN BOOK
Chapter 1
Section A
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1. EYE DESIGN 
A. Importance of eyes - How and why we see
     After millennia of recorded history, we are just beginning to understand the complexity and diversity of eyes. Most living creatures and some plants have individually designed eyes. Sight is essential for most creatures. For most of us the eye provides the most important link to the world by enabling us to visualize shapes and colors. Some animals and plants only sense changes in light without seeing specific images. The eye and brain process visual information to link our inner being to the world and beyond. 

1. How we see
     Eyes are adaptable visual sensors that enable us to see in a wide variety of situations. While moving, images must be collected without movements that cause blurred images. The electro-mechanical parts of eyes near and around the lens provide a means of tracking, adjusting light, and focusing. Tracking capability to control eye direction and focus is required for the eyes of most creatures. Here the brain controls where and how eyes see as well, as what they see. Brain image processing software and hardware for eyes are more amazing than the eyes themselves.
     Scientists are just starting to understand the complete process of vision. The following is a diagram of a typical man-made image display system (Figure 1.1).
     As an example of how we see, consider the current generation of focal plane array sensors such as charge-coupled devices in typical video cameras. They are also used for military and commercial infrared surveillance or visible viewing systems, optical missile warning systems, and automatic optical target recognition systems. These systems are much like our eyes. Some vision system optics and light control appear to be patterned after a human eye as shown in Figure 1.2. (From p. 135, Iridology, Vol. 2, 1982, published by Bernard Jensen Enterprises, 
Escondido, CA 92027)

Figure 1.1 Diagram of a Simplified Man-made Image Display System.

Figure 1.2 Diagram of Typical Eye  for a Biological Vision System  (Like Figs.3-44 and 6-1)

There are a number of vision system parallels  as we see in the following comparison.
Part of Biological Vision System	Corresponding Part of  Man-made Vision System
Cornea:	Lens Optical window and focusing lens element for incoming light
Iris:	Iris that controls light level and background rejection
Retina:	Focal plane array like CCD detector in a TV camera to absorb and process radiation
Rods and Cones:	Photo detectors in focal plane array to convert photon into chemical and electrical signals
Plexiform ganglion cells:	Image processing on sensor to start to extract features of interest

    The next figure then illustrates a man made vision system 

    Scanning by one or more eyes is sometimes used to increase field of view. Creatures with more than two eyes may use their multiple eyes for stereo vision and increased angular coverage. The brain coordinates the eyes to complete a vision system that may also require movement of related parts of the body. To help quickly recognize danger and to visualize specific problems, image processing of eye signals to the brain involve at least the following:
     Complex circuits interconnecting the multitude of sensors in the retina. 
Parallel computersprocess retina information for the brain to automatically control eye functions such as light control and focus to provide vision.
     "Software" databases that are present in the brain at birth for functions specific to that type of creature. 
     Recognition "software" combined in small parallel computers for the brain to process scenes. 
     Adaptable recognition "software" for new situations as learning takes place.      There are many different types and size of eyes. Some eyes of small creatures such as insects consist of arrays of many very small discrete sensors, providing them compound eyes of various types. Here small sensors contained in each facet of a compound eye detect a small part of the total image that is seen by each eye. Even by using today's technology, the optics and image processing of these small eyes would be extremely difficult for man to duplicate in a lab, yet they are very common. 
     Billions of eyes are produced in insects each year. Many variations in eye design are represented. 
     How many eyes came from evolution and how many came from a single intelligent design source?
     Cell factories making eyes take significant organization to duplicate DNA and create new cells. Every cell in the body contains directions for making eyes as well as any other body part. Cell design and multiplication is done with intelligence, control, and focused power inputs. 
     What is the probability of eyes evolving without intelligent input? 
How did the directions for making eyes DNA achieve a stable design? 
      How did eyes from evolution reproduce?
      Good color vision is not evident in all species. Most creatures have some color sensors with enough resolution to recognize objects of different colors. Some have capability to see additional colors at one or both extremes of the human visual spectrum. For example, a number of insects such as moths and bees see ultraviolet colors not visible within the human spectrum of vision. There are also snakes such as vipers that see well into the infrared spectral region where humans cannot see without the help of special IR sensing instruments. See Figure 1.4 for spectral coverage of human eyes. 

Figure 1.4a Spectral  Coverage of Human Eyes.

Figure 1.4b Spectrum of Eye. (By permission of James T Fulton, Dir of Research Vision Concepts)

In general, eyes have difficulty in defining colors in dim light. Because of the mix of different types of sensors in the retina, the human eye can see color at medium to high brightness, but poorly at very low image brightness. Many creatures see scenes differently by having either a narrow and/or a wide angular field of view and a mix of high and low resolution over the field of vision. Just as cameras require a specific amount of light to expose film or electronic sensors, so eyes also require enough light to see, but not too much to overload the vision system and cause blindness.       The human retina is capable of seeing high resolution at a wide variety of light levels. Overall eye sensitivity and control allows a large dynamic range of light intensities and color to be sensed in many kinds of environments, and in a wide variety of dynamic situations.

Figure 1.5a Iris Identification Analysis  Figure 1.5b Iris Design  Variations for Camera  Type Eyes

Figure 1.5c Human Iris Variations

Figure 1.6 Iris Regulating  Light Into Eye Showing Several Different  Size Apertures.

    Our high sensitivity can see a faint glow in the dark, and also see light approximately 10 billion times as bright. The eye's iris is only one means of controlling the light going into the eye's retina. There are many variations of iris in different creatures. Some of these are shown by Figure 1.5 while Figure 1.6 shows illustrations of an iris applied to control light in a camera type  eye retina. (Fig. 1.5 Modified from original, p. 65, Vision in the Animal World, R. H. Smythe, Macmillan Press,1975. Fig. 1.6 by Curt Deckert) 

The iris automatically reduces the diameter of camera-type eyes opening to the eye lens and retina so the brain can control the light going to the retina. The retina is like a multi-layer film. It contains several layers of chemical electronic sensors made into a near- spherical shape. In addition to the iris, there is additional control on the sensitivity of the rod and cone photo-sensors within the multiple retina layers of our eyes as shown by Figure 1.7. As an example of design in human eyes, the spacing of red and green cones in the retina are optimized for discerning yellow, orange, or red fruit against a green background (reference: Biophotonics International, June 2002, page 40). This is typical of mammals that eat fruit. The selection of fruit does not require high-resolution of color so we do not need a full complement of color sensors for that purpose as in a typical digital camera.        Massive amounts of information from eye retinas are processed rapidly by our brain. In order for this to happen, there are thousands of parallel paths in each layer of sensor cells that allow information to be partially processed in the path from the eye to the brain. Once this information goes into the brain the final images are processed and then samplings of scenes may go into memory.       Specific optical designs are evident in the eyes of each family of living creatures. Each eye is designed uniquely to fit each creature, and is adaptable to typical situations it will encounter. Although many complex forms of eyes have been around for a long time, there is little proof of significant design changes in basic optical design approaches for any biological organism. There is no specific biochemical mechanism, other than fully developed eye cells, by which it is possible to obtain beneficial mutations of new or intermediate eye types. (Fig 1.7b adapted from 1999 Eye Poster from Anatomical Chart Co. Skokie, IL) (Figs 1.7c-d by permission of James T Fulton, Dir of Research Vision Concepts)

Figure 1.7a. Retina Layers Figure 1.7b. Retina Layers (Same as Fig 3.60b) Figure 1.7c. Simplified  Eye Assembly

So how can "natural selection" create new eye designs from cell designs defined by a specific DNA? 

2. Why we see

Eyes are required not only for obtaining the necessities of life, but also for providing one of our key senses for survival. We use our eyes and eye expressions for work, service, help, safety, love, play, exploring, learning, evil, cheating, temptation, etc.       Since sight is coordinated and controlled by the brain, one comes to the conclusion that each creature's brain was designed to be compatible with its eyes. Here there is irreducible complexity for useful vision. In other words, in order to have a functional vision system you need to have all the parts in place for it to function. Some brain and eye functions are operable from birth, while others are learned and improve with age.

Figure 1.7d Servo  design for visual system

     Each type of creature has slightly different eye requirements. This is like having optical scanners or video cameras designed to be compatible with specific computers and software for interpreting and recording a scene. Just imagine the hardware and software compatibility problems in interchanging or upgrading eyes from one type of creature to another, or upgrading an eye to a more complex design with higher resolution. If the brain were not improved along with the eyes, then these design changes or upgrades would fail. (Darwin's Black Box by Behe). With respect to evolution, Dawkins and others have not fully answered the eye origin questions relative to eye transitions 
     The design integration of intelligence relative to eyes in all beings seems to have occurred rapidly with a high level of completeness and balance. There is not enough probability for any significant evolution in eye design to happen without adding intelligent input into the DNA alterations required to change eye cells. The initial DNA required considerable optical design input at all levels of eye development and image processing in the natural formation of eyes. The plan for eye formation is fully integrated at the cell level using complex molecular arrangements. Very specific DNA genetic codes work in millions of different creatures to reproduce and grow identical eyes in each type of creature. 
     Genetic codes are useless without specific processes fueled by energy and material and balance. The initial DNA required considerable optical design input at all levels of eye development and image processing in the natural formation of eyes. The plan for eye formation is fully integrated at the cell level using complex molecular arrangements. Very specific DNA genetic codes work in millions of different creatures to reproduce and grow identical eyes in each type of creature. 
     Genetic codes are also useless without specific processes fueled by energy and material sources to allow them to function. For example, a huge library is useless without someone to read and then use the material found in the books to do something constructive with it. This requires an assumption of initial intelligence to be able to read. 
     By being able to modify molecules in a controlled environment, scientists can study the basic building blocks of life to further appreciate the design that has gone into our eyes. DNA sequencing makes it possible to begin to read the directions for biological eye design at the molecular level. New research by scientists is providing new reasons to fund further study of biological eye designs. 
     Some scientists think it took hundreds of millions of years to evolve eyes yet eyes have more uniformity than many mass-produced cameras. We know man-made cameras do not just happen. Designers and manufacturers are required to establish uniform construction carried out with very specific materials and close tolerances, to fabricate parts for specific purposes. Manufacturing companies also require a purpose or market for the product. New engineering adapts it to changing conditions. There is usually no reason for engineers to perfect a technology until they know all the environmental and functional requirements. 
     In the real world there is no known random stream of beneficial mutations that develop products. The vast majority of mutations are neutral at best and lethal at worst. Significant intelligence is required for quality control to deal with negative mutations of typical designs and manufacturing. 
 

     How would you integrate and use any of these features in your vision system? I wonder if your selection will change as you explore this material on eye design? Or will you be more satisfied at the capability of your own eyes and appreciate them even more? 
As we examine theories of origins, within an eye design framework, we will be challenged by the variations of eye design and technology. 
What is the probability of eyes evolving without intelligent input? 
How did the directions for making eyes DNA achieve a stable design?