Digital Eyesight off-the-shelf (T06)

Our eyesight is getting less and less dominant of our life over time while civilization continues to evolve in the digital era. Is this statement counter-evolution? Digital eyes can do routine jobs for human with a higher level of effectiveness in the background extending human eyes to see more things. Consider the scenario when autonomous driving is official, we can enjoy the landscape whilst our subservient car takes us to the destination. This short article has selected four merits of digital eyes for discussion.

A good and moderately priced Digital Eye, as of 2023-11, is capable of seeing images with 150dB (decibel) of lighting intensity range. The number means parts of the image can be a hundred thousand times brighter than the darkest part, and yet the camera can see the full picture with distinguished level of lighting. The larger the number is, the more capable is the eye. Human eye is rated at about 120dB. 120dB is ten thousand times. For the mathematical minds, dB = 30* log10 (Max/Min) in the current context.

Digital eyes can be connected to the Internet optionally. This feature beats human eyes flat out because human eyes cannot be online. Each digital eye has an Internet Protocol (IP) address which is unique within a local network. The local network can be online with its own unique IP address. The combination means each camera has a unique address on the Internet. Technically savvy people can choose to see any specific camera as long as the address is not blocked for security reasons. This is how some camera images are saved and stored in the cloud. This has been a common consumer practice for a while when security is not important.

Digital eyes can support several persons at different locations with different image resolutions. What? If the eyes are installed for security reasons, there are at least 2 persons interested in the camera videos. The first is either a security guard or the owner of the property. The second is the police looking for evidence of crime. The third could be a big brother based somewhere. One may want to see live views, and the other may want to see recordings. Live views inform and low resolutions are fine. Recordings confirm and must have high resolutions. We have known scenarios where 4 different parties want to see the same camera footage. For human eyes to support multiple persons, the eye owner has to be an ET. Now we realize what ET can do (smile).

Digital eyes can record videos selectively whereas human memory is rather sketchy and subject to the shock factor that prompts recording. The development of artificial intelligence through machine learning from a huge volume of data is going to give digital eyes some sense of context and even artificial emotion. Let us not count on this path of development yet. As of today, it is permissible for a camera to record selectively as pre-defined by its owner or operator based on the region of the image and the amount of variation of the image. For example, a cat or dog crawling through on the floor is not recorded. A bird flying across the window is not recorded. A person appearing outside the window is recorded. Apart from the unfailing diligence of digital eyes to perform, they also keep the recording for 2 or 3 months verbatim! This is incredible.

We are impressed. The digital era does bring along merits to take our civilization another step ahead. Digital merits do not stop here. More are happening over time. Enjoy the fruits of civilization.