Pinhole Binoculars
Description
My creation, Pinhole Binoculars, is a simple creation to alter one of our most depended on senses – vision. I drew my inspiration from the concept of light and how when it travels into our eyes the image is actually upside down and then ‘flipped’ in our brains. Therefore, I wanted to create something that would either reverse and/or flip what the user will see. After going through several different models of vision-altering pinhole devices, my final device allowed the user to see the image in front of them upside down and blurred.
Perspective & Context
On page 75 of the work we read The World of Perception by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, he talks about how “the world is not made up of space and things” but also includes “[our] own vision of things.” And this vision and how we see ourselves in relation to other beings and how we relate to them with our senses is what made me want to alter vision. By altering our perception through the changing of what is normal, we can SEE ourselves in a whole new world in a whole different way. Without our normal ways of perception and perceiving the world around us, we are placed in a situation where we must rethink and reprocess the images, sounds, smells, and others that we are receiving.
Development Process
I was first inspired to create something using pinholes that would not only flip what you see but will display it on the opposite side of where it ‘should’ be visible. My first idea was to create an enlarged VR glasses shaped box with a pinhole on the left and right side of the box. This would then allow the light from either side of the user to travel through the two pinholes, projecting an upside down image of the outer world on the opposite side of the respective pinhole. However, once I created my device the image wouldn’t travel through and reflect on the other side as well as I had hoped, most likely due to the physics properties of light (which I spent a few hours researching and calculating and measuring) and the distance it travels from the pinhole to the opposing side of the box.
Therefore I was forced to scrap that idea and when I searched what else I could do with a pinhole, I came across a YouTube video that was showing how to create a pinhole camera. This led me to my final product’s idea which was the Pinhole Binoculars.
- The Pinhole Binoculars consist of two ‘lenses’ which consist of 5 paper cups on each side (3 are removable to adjust clarity/size of the image).
- On each cup furthest outward, there is a small pinhole in the middle of the cup, from which the image from the outside travels through.
- On each innermost cup, there is a sheet of sketching paper attached to the bottom of the cup which is where the image/light traveling through the pinhole will be displayed – upside down.
- The 3 white cups which can be seen in the third image are removable and can be used to adjust the clarity/size of the image projected on the sketching paper.
Front
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Presentation
The presentation went better than I had expected. During the days leading up to the presentation, it was mostly cloudy/rainy and dark outside which worried me a bit on how well my Pinhole Binoculars worked. However, the presentation and user testing went extremely well as the day of the test was very sunny, and the image projected was relatively clear and enjoyable. I was surprised at how many people wanted to try my creation and how much they were enjoying the experience. I believe I can improve my preparation for presenting as moving down the hall to the windows looking outside was a last minute idea, and I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure if that would work.
Conclusion
In this project, I learned that in order to change our perceptions or senses, a high-tech solution isn’t necessarily required, but through the use of a few scientific properties and tricks, we can relatively easily create something that can alter our ‘normal’ senses. I failed at creating what I had originally set out to create, mostly due to the lack of the adequate resources, materials, and knowledge, but I feel that my final solution worked out just as well as I had hoped and I am happy with the results. To further improve on my final creation, I would like to add either straps or glasses-type arms that would free up the user’s hands, and I would like to also add additional foam that would block out any other light that could enter through the sides of the user’s vision. Although my final product was not my first idea, the project really taught me how much we rely on our senses without even thinking of it, as I struggled to walk through my apartment when I wore the Pinhole Binoculars inside.