What Do Cats See? • Hacker News Board

Re: What Do Cats See?

#71

Post by JetSetWilly » Sat, Oct 19, 2013, 7:16 PM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #24

This article was substandard for HN. No real mention or explanation was made of the reflective layer behind the retina, this is the special feature that gives cats what amounts to night vision, however it is at a cost of resolution. But hey, VGA night vision is better than a 4K pitch black image. I have noticed that the cats I know are selectively short sighted. A rival cat from a neighbouring area or a fox can be sp…

I understand that cats have face blindness. To a human, another human looks very distinctive and unique as we have been crafted by evolution to notice the tiniest difference between faces. To a cat, we all look pretty much the same, it takes them a bit more effort to work out who is who.

Re: What Do Cats See?

#72

Post by mratzloff » Sat, Oct 19, 2013, 8:03 PM UTC

mratzloff wrote: post #60

SeanDav wrote: post #44

This seems to answer a question I asked myself just yesterday: A neighbour's cat and my cat had a argument, no actual fighting - just lots of staring, yowling and that strange growling sound cats make. Nothing too questionable there, but then my cat did something rather strange - she started moving away by walking extremely slowly and I mean extremely slowly. I wondered what on earth she was up to but after reading t…

I suspect not. To do so would imply that cats are self-aware, which no one has been able to demonstrate.

The idea was that moving slowly implies that they recognized the other cat has the same limitations as itself.

I am beginning to find Hacker News very tedious when people down-vote posts that they disagree with which were made in good faith.

Re: What Do Cats See?

#73

Post by dTal » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 3:14 PM UTC

roryokane wrote: post #57

dTal wrote: post #5

The trouble with "simulations" like these is they ignore cognitive post-processing - much like visualizations of what it's like to look through a compound eye portraying it as like looking at a wall of TV sets. The human images and the cat images are not comparable because the human images represent a subjective impression, rather than a prediction from visual capabilities like the cat images. For example, the human…

I think these simulations are after post-processing. That us exactly why the human vision picture is sharp past 6 degrees from center - the picture portrays what we see after our brains stitch together a visual field.

The human image is after post-processing. But we do not (cannot?) know what post-processing cats apply! Their impression of their own visual field could be just as sharp as ours (and probably is).

Re: What Do Cats See?

#74

Post by SeanDav » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 9:22 PM UTC

mratzloff wrote: post #72

mratzloff wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect not. To do so would imply that cats are self-aware, which no one has been able to demonstrate.

The idea was that moving slowly implies that they recognized the other cat has the same limitations as itself. I am beginning to find Hacker News very tedious when people down-vote posts that they disagree with which were made in good faith.

Have you ever seen a pride of lions hunting? The teamwork and understanding involved there is way beyond that required to recognize that another animal might not notice if one moves slowly.

One very simple step is they recognize the concept of upwind and downwind, not to mention the concept of beaters, ambushers and the ability to dynamically change their strategy when circumstances change.