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MAGNIFICATION-FREE
UW OPTICS “Flatness” is a geometrical fiction. A lens with radius = 0 is “flat” in the common sense. Actually a “flat” surface curves on itself and its true radius = infinity. Underwater visibility is a common sense phenomenon: perceived reality. Rigorous intellects will agree that visual perception is bounded by measurable limits. Optical scientists accept that vision for the naked eye is possible only within the em spectral interval 425-750 Angstroms. In the 17th Century, Professor Snell determined empirically the refraction of light transmitted through media of unequal densities; unequal indices of refraction. Snell used flat glass to separate the media of water and air and confirmed the refractive factor from water to air as equal to +0.33. Snell also determined that only the chief ray of marine light transmits through the flat lens normally (90°) and is undeviated (not refracted). All other components of marine light transmit through the flat lens obliquely. That set of oblique transmissions is refracted ± from the normal by ±33° into air. The effect of magnification in the air is commonly perceived by a diver as tunnel vision. AQUASIGHT has altered the geometry of Snell’s experimental design. Instead of a flat (linear) lens, we place a curved (non-linear) lens with a flat (linear) second surface as the transmission barrier between water and air. The marine light intersects, transmits through, the curved surface wholly normal and passes further undeviated through the secondary flat surface to air. The effect is perceived by a diver as normal vision; a non-confounded visual field. The flat lens (Snell) model is measured by a magnified visual field (divers’ tunnel vision) and a magnified image field for the camera. The curved lens model (AQUASIGHT) is measured by a normal divers’ visual field and a normal image field for the camera. Snell’s Law of Refraction -- empirically demonstrated in a linear design -- has no application to a non-linear design. The AQUASIGHT design is out of Snell’s box. AQUASIGHT |
*US Patent No. 5,359,371 US Patent No. 5,523,804 US Patent No. 6,460,994
