A photographic simulation of insect vision

Photography allows for a convenient representation of the visual information that is present in our world. However, the way in which stimuli are sensed, and subsequently perceived, is dependent upon the specific spectral and spatial sensitivities of a visual system. False colour infrared imaging allows a scientific photographer to record long-wavelength information not normally visible to humans, and display this visual information within the human colour spectrum. Many animals, for example, the honeybee (Apis mellifera), see the world through completely different sensory mechanisms than human subjects. This is both because the optics of compound eyes in insects are different than the single lens eyes of humans, and because these insects have trichromatic colour vision based upon different photoreceptors than humans. In this study, a photographic representation of insect vision is created by simulating both the spatial and colour properties of honeybee vision.