Most of today's youth has had early exposure to photography, thanks to people having a camera on their person almost all the time. This has brought about a change in the collective consciousness and the youth now realizes the importance of ̶r̶e̶s̶p̶e̶c̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶v̶a̶c̶y̶ a steady hand while taking a picture. It's an easily understood concept. The Camera Lens is focusing at the subject, and any movement of the lens while capturing an image changes the relative position of the subject on the Lens, thus blurring everything. There is an easy remedy to prevent this from happening. This post is not about that remedy.
This post is really about how what happens with the Camera does not happen with the Eye. The Eye works just like a camera (or the other way around as some evolutionists would lead us to believe; bloody quacks), however the images remain in sharp focus no matter how we move our head while looking at the subject. There is something in the human system that keeps the gaze stabilized no matter what the rest of the body is doing, be it walking, running or riding a roller coaster. Something, that moves the eye in the opposite direction of head movement at an acutely exact speed, so the lens continues looking at the subject without displacing so much as half a degree despite the rest of the camera moving about in almost any plane. Had this not been so, our vision would have been a long and continuous movie shot with an incredibly shaky camera.
The question is, what is it that makes sure the shaky camera stabilizes?
And the obvious response to that is, that since the question was cleverly inserted by the Ear Doctor to make his specialty sound more important, the answer must be The Ear. *Ooh the joys of narcissism.*
One of the major tasks of the Inner Ear, which houses the Vestibule, is Gaze Stabilization. The ear has five pairs of organs that detect acceleration : 3 of them detect Angular Acceleration in X, Y and the Z axis, and 2 detect linear acceleration in horizontal, and vertical planes respectively. Let me break down the balance organ for you, not literally of course, else what sort of a maniac will that make me. But the concept of this all.
Angular and Linear Acceleration Explained:
a) When you move your head up and down, like when saying Yes. (Pitch Plane : Angular)
b) When you move your head left to right, like when saying No. (Yaw Plane, Angular)
c) When you tilt your head to one side and then to the other, like saying "Okay". Universally this is called the Indian Headshake, and leaves westerners uber confused over what we mean. Legend has it that it was deviced as a ploy to confuse the British and had a role in India attaining Independence in 1947. (Roll Plane, Angular)
d) Linear Motion, forward, when accelerating in a car (or reversing the car) (Linear Horizontal)
e) Linear Motion, upward, when moving in the elevator (or down :) ) (Linear Vertical)
Note: If you did try the neck movements while reading this blog, and the words remained in sharp focus despite your head moving in various directions, then that means your Ears are performing the job wonderfully well, and you have my deepest congratulations for that.
All 5 of these organs are attached to eye muscles, and move the eyes in the opposite direction of head movement at the precise speed so the eye can keep its gaze right where it needs to, and images don't move, change or blur.
Clearly this was of paramount importance to our ancestors when they went hunting. They needed to have their vision locked on the pray to hunt while they ran behind it jumping over all sorts of obstacles, else humanity would have died out of starvation. The same system over time improved tremendously so it can now help Virat Kohli keep his eyes fixed on the ball, and eventually catch it while taking all sort of tumbles, and he can get to become the man of the match.
The Gaze Stabilization System medically is abbreviated as the VOR and dead folks don't have it. This forms the basis of the Doll's Eye Test. If one has had a head injury, and to make things worse, fails this test, his/her organs are given to someone who deserves them more than s/he. Hence if you want to keep your organs, remember to pass this test, under all circumstances. This makes the Doll's Eye Test the most important test that one will ever take in his/her life. Luckily, one doesn't need to prepare too much to pass this test.
That sums up Image Stabilization Network, and how it separates our lives from a Ram Gopal Varma movie with incredibly poor camera angles and stability. Will discuss what happens when there are problems in the Vestibule, and VOR is partially compromised, in another post.
Below are some images that may help understand the concept of the ear organs, the vestibule, the planes of motion and the VOR test.
Example : 
(Source: http://www.ulearn.photography.com )
This post is really about how what happens with the Camera does not happen with the Eye. The Eye works just like a camera (or the other way around as some evolutionists would lead us to believe; bloody quacks), however the images remain in sharp focus no matter how we move our head while looking at the subject. There is something in the human system that keeps the gaze stabilized no matter what the rest of the body is doing, be it walking, running or riding a roller coaster. Something, that moves the eye in the opposite direction of head movement at an acutely exact speed, so the lens continues looking at the subject without displacing so much as half a degree despite the rest of the camera moving about in almost any plane. Had this not been so, our vision would have been a long and continuous movie shot with an incredibly shaky camera.
The question is, what is it that makes sure the shaky camera stabilizes?
And the obvious response to that is, that since the question was cleverly inserted by the Ear Doctor to make his specialty sound more important, the answer must be The Ear. *Ooh the joys of narcissism.*
One of the major tasks of the Inner Ear, which houses the Vestibule, is Gaze Stabilization. The ear has five pairs of organs that detect acceleration : 3 of them detect Angular Acceleration in X, Y and the Z axis, and 2 detect linear acceleration in horizontal, and vertical planes respectively. Let me break down the balance organ for you, not literally of course, else what sort of a maniac will that make me. But the concept of this all.
Angular and Linear Acceleration Explained:
a) When you move your head up and down, like when saying Yes. (Pitch Plane : Angular)
b) When you move your head left to right, like when saying No. (Yaw Plane, Angular)
c) When you tilt your head to one side and then to the other, like saying "Okay". Universally this is called the Indian Headshake, and leaves westerners uber confused over what we mean. Legend has it that it was deviced as a ploy to confuse the British and had a role in India attaining Independence in 1947. (Roll Plane, Angular)
d) Linear Motion, forward, when accelerating in a car (or reversing the car) (Linear Horizontal)
e) Linear Motion, upward, when moving in the elevator (or down :) ) (Linear Vertical)
Note: If you did try the neck movements while reading this blog, and the words remained in sharp focus despite your head moving in various directions, then that means your Ears are performing the job wonderfully well, and you have my deepest congratulations for that.
All 5 of these organs are attached to eye muscles, and move the eyes in the opposite direction of head movement at the precise speed so the eye can keep its gaze right where it needs to, and images don't move, change or blur.
Clearly this was of paramount importance to our ancestors when they went hunting. They needed to have their vision locked on the pray to hunt while they ran behind it jumping over all sorts of obstacles, else humanity would have died out of starvation. The same system over time improved tremendously so it can now help Virat Kohli keep his eyes fixed on the ball, and eventually catch it while taking all sort of tumbles, and he can get to become the man of the match.
The Gaze Stabilization System medically is abbreviated as the VOR and dead folks don't have it. This forms the basis of the Doll's Eye Test. If one has had a head injury, and to make things worse, fails this test, his/her organs are given to someone who deserves them more than s/he. Hence if you want to keep your organs, remember to pass this test, under all circumstances. This makes the Doll's Eye Test the most important test that one will ever take in his/her life. Luckily, one doesn't need to prepare too much to pass this test.
That sums up Image Stabilization Network, and how it separates our lives from a Ram Gopal Varma movie with incredibly poor camera angles and stability. Will discuss what happens when there are problems in the Vestibule, and VOR is partially compromised, in another post.
Below are some images that may help understand the concept of the ear organs, the vestibule, the planes of motion and the VOR test.
image : http://taichi-ireland.com/2015/04/15/gyroscope/
VOR on Roll Plane
Various Eye Muscles that the Vestibular System moves to attain Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex
The 3 Semicircular Canals and the Utricle and Saccule, the five organs
that are responsible for the vestibulo-ocular reflex
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