This was an idea for a children's book and also a pair of creature glasses that I wanted to make: You could choose the animal in your app settings, wear your glasses, and voila! You would see the world around you as the animal does: an ocular device that transported you into the alternate reality of that creature. But as most good ideas of mine, they festered in a document of Potential Ideas.
So, I was intrigued when I saw this book in the library.
Eye By Eye - Comparing How Animals See - By Sara Levine, illustrated by T S SpookyTooth
Even as you open this whimsical book, you realize that seeing the world like we do can be a unique gift. That is not even considering perspective, personality and all the rest of it: just the ocular aspect of it.
How would an animal with eight animals see the world?
A Spider's Vision
The illustration of a woman bespectacled in all 8 eyes is endearing, but it does make you think of a spider.
A Spider's Vision
I noticed a spider has really taken a liking to our car's external rear-view mirror. Everyday, there is a fine web spun there - I wonder whether the little creature sees itself spinning its beautiful web, and admires itself for it.
What if you had six eyes, one located at the end of each of your six arms?
Shapes & Colors
The book not only considers creatures with differing number of eyes, but differing eye shapes as well: like that of an owl.
Pupil shapes matter - goats have rectangular pupils. ( I confess I have looked into the eyes of plenty of goats and never noticed this.) Cuttlefish's pupils are W-shaped.
Small hexagon shapes in an eyeball ( like in a bee hive?) Well, flies have that.
Then we come to colors, but we can have colorful differences in our outlooks as well. Butterflies and hummingbirds, we have known for some time, see the world very differently than we do. As do dogs, and cats.
So, whether or not I make those creature glasses or some company comes up with such ubiquitous VR that it seems like it was always there, it is a fascinating world out there. Go outside and imagine life as a hummingbird, or a jellyfish. Glasses or not, your thoughts will transform your mood.
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