American Museum of Natural History Exhibit T.Rex with simulated Tetrachromatic Vision

Today at March 11, 2019 the American Museum of Natural History in New York at Central Park officially opens up their new exhibit T.Rex: The Ultimate Predator through August 9, 2020 and it contains some of my work, as T-Rex was supposed to have tetrachromatic vision, as those were the ancestors or our today's birds, which have tetrachromatic vision.

For demonstrating this to its visitors, my Rudbeckia hirta flower shots in 3D stereo human vision as well as in simulated tetrachromatic vision were used.

I'm always amazed about the differences in our human trichromatic color perception and how that very same flower would look like, if seen through tetrachromatic eyes, being able to also see ultraviolet (UV) light, invisible to us humans!

Hence why I developed a method to simulate that, by mapping a 4-dimensional tetrachromatic color space into our trichromatic 3-dimensional one.

[click on image to see a STEREO image in large]

Human Trichromatic Vision: 


Tetrachromatic Vision (simulated, UV mapped as blue) 


I have written more about this flower HERE and about tetrachromatic vision HERE

Stay tuned, more will follow on that fascinating subject...

More info on this very interesting field may be found on my site http://www.pbase.com/kds315/uv_photos

American Natural History Museum exhibit "Our Senses"

The exhibition project management of the American Natural History Museum had asked me to participate with some of my works for their forthcoming 2017-2019 exhibit "Our Senses", which has already opened its doors to the public November 20, 2017 and it will last until Sunday, January 6, 2019

(quote AMNH) Every day, we perceive the world around us through our senses - including sight, smell, hearing, touch, balance, and taste. But as it turns out, for humans “reality” isn’t ever exactly what it seems. In this highly experiential exhibition, explore 11 funhouse-like spaces that dare you to trust your senses - then show you how what we perceive is not simply a window into the world around us but a product ofour brains. Plus, discover why we have senses and what’s unique about human perception during an interactive session hosted by a live presenter. (unquote)

 (c) AMNH

My contribution will be some of my multispectral Rudbeckia fulgida flower images, demonstrating the difference between our human vision and the vision of a butterfly and a honey bee (simulated).

(c) AMNH, Dr Klaus Schmitt

It also includes some images which help to understand what monach butterflies may see, as it allows visitors by using a push button to switch from their human vision into butterfly vision on 3D modeled flowers.

(c) AMNH

I'm certain this exhibit is visually stunning, as well as highly educative since it is interactive and suited for interested individuals as well as families, their kids and school classes.

(C) AMNH

Go have a look, it will be well worth it!

If you like to have a look into the Educator's Guide, HERE is the link to it!

For further reading here is an interesting, quite more detailed article about this exhibit and here Scientific American has written about it.


Stay tuned, more will follow on that fascinating subject...