Stereoblind? Was I stereoblind? I looked around. The classroom didn't seem entirely flat to me. I knew that the student sitting in front of me was located between me and the blackboard because the student blocked my view of the blackboard. When I looked outside the classroom window, I knew which trees were located further away because they looked smaller than the closer ones. The footpath outside the window appeared to narrow as it extended out into the distance. Through cues like these, I could judge depth and distance. I knew the world was in 3D. Yet, my professor implied that there was another, different way to see space and depth. He called this way of seeing stereopsis. I couldn't imagine what he was talking about. .
I admit I read this book because of a granddaughter born with vision problems. Susan Barry grew up with eyes that didn't track properly. In spite of surgeries, she did not develop the ability to see three dimensions or stereopsis. It is hard to imagine seeing everything in 2D, but the author does a great job of describing it. As strange as it sounds to most of us, people without stereo vision can't really imagine 3D. This book combines both the biology of vision problems related to eyes tracking and the human effects on those with this problem. Becoming a neurobiologist, the author was in a unique position to write this book after discovering a method to begin seeing 3D at age fifty. The book is certainly a must read if you know anyone a cross-eye or wall-eye. Even if you don't, this short book is very informative and easy to read and understand.
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