Every modern ship, plane and satellite is equipped with flywheels in gimbals to detect and report rotational acceleration and displacement. Many of them have devices to detect linear acceleration. Our inner ears are equipped with vestibular systems, that detect and report both of these accelerations.
I don’t know how acceleration data from the inner ear are received in the brain, but I speculate that my honeycomb illusion might be involved in the report. I suspect this because: the honeycomb hexagons that I see on every blank surface don't move when I move my gaze but not head, and they don't move when I move my head but not my gaze, and they don't move when I move both. The honeycomb seems to stay where it was before head and/or eye movement -- as if held in place by feedback from my vestibular system.
My honeycomb illusion might be my personal frame of reference (that goes with me) or my objective frame of reference (through which I go) or both. Such a reference would allow me to keep track of my relations with surroundings quicker than possible through good visual information and despite poor or lacking visual information.
I invite the curious to weigh in on this speculation.
No comments:
Post a Comment