Saccade Based Display

Junji Watanabe (JP), Hideyuki Ando (JP)
THU September 4, 2014, 9 AM-5:30 PM, 7 PM-11 PM
FRI September 5, 2014, 9 AM-5 PM, 7 PM-11 PM
SAT September 6, 2014, 9 AM-4 PM, 7 PM-11 PM
SUN September 7, 2014, 1 PM-3:30 PM
MON September 8, 2014, 11:30 AM-5:30 PM

Mariendom

Saccade is a technical term used by opticians and ophthalmologists to describe a certain type of eye movement: so-called visual target movements that include both spontaneous and deliberate eye movements. They’re among the fastest motions the human body makes, and are the basis of a display developed by Junji Watanabe (whereby the term display is somewhat misleading here, since this array doesn’t contain a monitor in a conventional sense).

Looking lengthwise and diagonally

It makes use of saccade to display images. When the eye makes a horizontal movement to perceive the rapid-fire flashing of LEDs on a vertical line, the impression of a two-dimensional image forms on the retina as what might be called an afterimage. The subsequently perceptible traces of a person’s own viewing movements are what provide the visual impression.

Ghost images

In the case of Watanabe’s display, there’s something ghostly about this, since the “projection” appearing in midair and thus without need for a physical screen. Technically, it’s already possible to present landscapes and portraits on the Saccade Based Display. Nevertheless, each individual viewer perceives the respective image differently, since it depends on the speed and direction of the movements of the particular person’s eyeballs.

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