Our eyes can see far more detail than any lens, yet our field of vision is far less interesting. We are at the time when 8K screens are starting to appear, while even YouTube is capable of playing 4K videos. What about the human eye?
The Clarckvision site asked the following question: what would be the resolution of the human eye if it were a camera? In a publication, this platform carried out a multitude of calculations determining an order of magnitude and came to the conclusion that our eye has a resolution of 576 megapixels. However, it is not as simple as that.
The Science Blog claims these calculations have been tweaked slightly, but why? Quite simply because the functioning of the human eye is very different from that of a camera. The latter records all the pixels simultaneously, while our eye must move, scanning what it sees in order to assemble an image. The field of vision is therefore too irregular to match the possibilities of a camera or a good camera. No ! Don’t be disappointed!
Another interesting question then arises: can humans be fooled by a 576 megapixel image into taking it for reality? Probably yes, but on one condition: that the latter can only look with one eye and without being able to move. According to the Curiosity site, the average resolution of a single still eye would be around 7 megapixels.
We are therefore far from the previously announced resolution, but it remains correct. A motionless human eye remains as « powerful » as the optical sensor of a fairly good quality smartphone! Kidding aside, here’s a little video explaining the maximum and average resolution of the human eye:
Sources: Konbini – Atlantico – Science Blog