- Joined
- Apr 30, 2006
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Hi--I had a lazy eye in childhood (unfortunately don't know more than that, just that it was esotropic), got a muscle surgery at age 7 or 8, but didn't develop normal binocular/depth perception. Was never able to see magic eyes...
Fast forward to now, I'm a 3rd year medical student. I had my depth perception tested by a friend who works in an occupational health department. There was a stereoscope (?) you looked into with these little patterns, four little circles arranged in a clover pattern, and one of the four jumps forward, and you have to say which one it is. According to her manual I have "20/40 binocular vision". She's not a physician or optometrist and couldn't tell me about that system of measurement or what my number meant. I hadn't even realized depth perception was quantified with a 20/ system... is this right or did she misinterpret something?
Now the real question--I definitely have *some* stereoscopic vision, some of the dots were very visible as jumping out (a unique experience for me, since I've never seen those 3-d vision things), but some were totally flat. I had always assumed I had *no* stereo vision... do any of you optho nuts know about this system of quantifying depth perception, and whether I could be eligible for a surgical specialty with 20/40 depth perception? I had ruled surgery out based on my previous belief that I had no depth perception, but just how bad is mine? Would it be a significant handicap in all surgical fields or just certain ones?
Thanks so much for helping me and listening to this rambling post!!
Chris
Fast forward to now, I'm a 3rd year medical student. I had my depth perception tested by a friend who works in an occupational health department. There was a stereoscope (?) you looked into with these little patterns, four little circles arranged in a clover pattern, and one of the four jumps forward, and you have to say which one it is. According to her manual I have "20/40 binocular vision". She's not a physician or optometrist and couldn't tell me about that system of measurement or what my number meant. I hadn't even realized depth perception was quantified with a 20/ system... is this right or did she misinterpret something?
Now the real question--I definitely have *some* stereoscopic vision, some of the dots were very visible as jumping out (a unique experience for me, since I've never seen those 3-d vision things), but some were totally flat. I had always assumed I had *no* stereo vision... do any of you optho nuts know about this system of quantifying depth perception, and whether I could be eligible for a surgical specialty with 20/40 depth perception? I had ruled surgery out based on my previous belief that I had no depth perception, but just how bad is mine? Would it be a significant handicap in all surgical fields or just certain ones?
Thanks so much for helping me and listening to this rambling post!!
Chris
