Which is better: the camera or the eye (assuming normal eyesight). Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. A camera merely records whatever image it receives. The human eye long ago solved a problem common to both digital and film cameras: how to get good contrast in an image while also capturing faint detail. The illusion of a bright and dark band on either side of the central stripe is due to lateral inhibition, where the cones in the retina inhibit their neighbors using negative feedback. A University of California Berkeley neurobiologist has discovered that the phenomenon involves localized positive feedback as well. Nearly 50 years ago, physiologists described the retina’s tricks for improving contrast and sharpening edges, but new experiments by University of California, Berkeley, neurobiologists show how the eye achieves this without sacrificing shadow detail.

The rest is here:
The Eye Versus the Camera

More on SKCEA.org:

• Teen’s invention boosts solar panel output 40 percent
  by Jess Zimmerman. Nineteen-year-old Eden Full is going to be taking a few years off from her studies at Princeton. That's because she's been getting a ton of grants to finish developing her SunSaluter, a technology that allows solar panels to track the sun, boosting out...
• E-waste idea: Turn an iMac into an aquarium
  by Jess Zimmerman. The iMac was built to be pretty. So why not sidestep the difficulty of recycling e-waste by making discarded iMac carapaces into something attractive for the home? Jake Harms had the clever idea to make them into aquariums , for "Mac and fish enthusiasts world...
• The Development of the Human Brain
  A brain-development gene found exclusively in humans has an unusual evolutionary history and could contribute to what makes us distinctly human. Equally surprising, this is a partial gene created from an incomplete duplication of its parent gene in the prehistoric human genome. T...
• Australia refloats Barrier Reef oil-spill ship
  by Agence France-Presse The Shen Neng 1 ship has been refloated after a nearly devastating oil spill at the Great Barrier Reef.Photo: Australian Maritime Safety Authority SYDNEY -- Australian authorities refloated a huge Chinese ship on Monday that had been stranded on the Great ...
• USGS launches Butterfly and Moth Website
  The United States Geologic Survey, and partners including Montana State University Big Sky Institute, National Biological Information Infrastructure, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, has launched a new website to help us understand, identify, and appreciate the rich div...