Re:Show HN: Can you see a single pixel on a retina display?
by frou_dh on Sunday June 02, 2013 @02:39PM
(#5809584)
> Oh for heaven's sake ... Vision and visual acuity is not this simple.
You just gave me flashbacks to the old chestnut of humans allegedly seeing a fixed "fps", and it conveniently topping out at the same nice round number that the nearest TV and/or theatre can produce. I bet that's still being propagated daily on forums.
Re:Show HN: Can you see a single pixel on a retina display?
by 1as on Sunday June 02, 2013 @02:17PM
(#5809509)
Thanks for the information. I like the sound of your 'better test'.
(This is not intended in a particularly serious way – but I do notice pixellation in type from time to time on my Retina MacBook Pro.)
[locate individual high contrast pixel] != [ability to distinguish individual pixels]
Vision and visual acuity is not this simple. See, e.g., http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/lum_hyperacuity/
I don't actually know, but perhaps seeing something as pixelated requires being able to resolve the edges of an individual pixel.
A better test would be to see if people can detect a difference in the pixel "phase" (for lack of a better word) of some pixel-drawn object (that is, show identically shaped objects that have a different internal pixel organizations because of their position on the screen). Do an ABX-style test, see if you can tell the difference.
I'll bet you can tell the difference on a classic display. I'll bet you can't on the iPhone 4+.
[edit: made the comment slightly nicer ... :/]