Abstract
In 1844 Wilhelm Karl von Haidinger (1795–1871) an Austrian physicist, geologist and mineralogist discovered that the human eye is able to perceive the linear polarization of light due to an entoptic phenomenon that was later named after him. Since the human photoreceptors themselves are insensitive to the E-vector direction of paraxially incident light, human polarization sensitivity seems to be simply a by-product of the dichroic and/or birefringent properties of the ocular media and/or the foveal region of the retina (Figs. 32.1–32.4) without any biological function.
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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Horváth, G., Varjú, D. (2004). Human Polarization Sensitivity. In: Polarized Light in Animal Vision. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-09387-0_32
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-09387-0_32
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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