Question
Hello--
I recently went into an Army hospital to have a flight physical to be a UAV operator. I was given a test to see how good my depth of field was. It was 10 rectangles, each with 3 circles each, and pair of glasses. It seems I have NO depth perception whatsoever.
I do have awful vision.. not quite sure on the numerics or anything. I am 18 years old and have been in glasses since the age of 3. I have a cross eye in my left eye. As I have gotten older, though, it's gotten better. It used to cross immediatly upon removing my glasses, but now it takes about 10 minutes.
How can I find out what causes this depth problem?
(From looking online, I know how I see depth.. colour/size/placement, etc, of objects.. but wondering what in my eyes could cause no natural perception.)
thanks
Answer
Depth perception comes from the discrepancy between the way each of the two eyes sees things, since both eyes are in a slightly different location on your head. Therefore, depth perception only arises IF your two eyes work together perfectly. As you said yourself, your eyes cross so that means they do not work together.
An eye doctor doing an exam on you would be able to tell you whether there is any chance of you gaining depth perception, now that your eyes don't cross so much. There is such a thing as vision therapy, a program of eye exercises that can improve depth perception in some cases. If your lack of depth perception is hindering your career choice, it may be worth a visit to an eye doctor who does vision therapy to find out if such a program of exercises would help you. To find such a doctor, you can Google "vision therapy" and your geographical location or check out this site: http://www.visiontherapydirectory.com.
