In This Section, Elegant Eyes offers a few fun ways to show you just how magnificent and complex your eyes are and why you should always take care of your eyes by scheduling annual eye examinations...HAVE FUN....

The picture above contains parts of shapes that, when arranged in a certain pattern, appear to form new shapes. In this case, the circles and parts of triangels are positioned in a such a way that a black triangle appears to form in the middle of them throughout the pattern. There is no defining line; your mind, however, sees an outlying shape.

Requirements:
1) you must have either a 15", 17", or 19" monitor
2) you must have flash plugin for it to work (click here to download)

There are a few tips that should make the exam more accurate:
1) have someone measure out the correct length that you should sit back at
2) keep a ¼" black border around your screen monitor by using the monitor buttons
3) try not to squint
4) when you can no longer read more than half the words on a line, press stop

A word of advice:
1) do not consider this as an official exam, only an optometrist has the most precise instruments to find your true Rx
2) this exam is only meant to give you an idea of where your eye power lands
3) due to variations in every monitor, accuracy is not perfect (dot pitch, brightness/contrast, monitor size, screen size, screen resolution)

...scroll down and good luck!

What is it?
Astigmatism is a condition in which the cornea is not fully a circular dome. Instead the cornea is shaped more like a football. It can cause headaches and eye strains if left untreated for a while because the eye tries to focus twice as much.

What causes it?
As with nearsightedness and farsightedness, this condition is caused by many factors, including injuries and diseases. Most of the times, however, it is hereditary.

Symptoms:
1. blurry vision
2. distorted vision (objects may appear stretched)

Try this test—if the some areas of the image appear lighter or blurrier than other areas, you may have astigmatism.

Treatment:
Glasses and contacts will improve astigmatism to near perfection.

What is it?
Color blindness, also known as daltonism, is a deficiency in the view of certain colors. Our retina is made up of rods and cones, which act as color and light receptors. Each of the millions of cones are made up of 3 more receptors: red, green and blue. When functioning correctly, we can see all types of color; color blindness occurs when there is a problem or lack of a color receptor in the cones. Red/green color distortion is the most common type of color vision impairment. In a few very rare cases, some people can only see in black and white shades.

What causes it?
Color blindness is almost always an inherited condition although males are more likely than females to get it. Cones in our eye contain red, green and blue pigments. When there is damage to one of the cones or a cone is missing some of the pigment, color blindness occurs.

Symptoms:
inability to distinguish colors (usually red/green and sometimes yellow/blue)

A color blind person may not see the digit 8 in the picture below.

Treatment:
For some color blind people, special contacts to can with color vision. Unfortunately, there is not a treatment to completely cure color blindness.

Everyone has a blindspot in their eyes. Located in the back of the eye, there is a point on the retina where the optic nerve joins in. This point, called the blindspot, has no color or light receptors at all.

The blind spot is the result of no light receptors at the area where the optic nerve joins the retina. Therefore, no light is picked up there. The optic nerve is actually an extension of the brain, and extends all the way to the back of the brain. You won't notice the blind spot with two eyes open because both eyes help each other and cancel the blind spot when the brain fuses the two images together from both of your eyes.

Directions:
Below are two purple dots.
Stare at one dot and close the other eye.
Using your peripheral vision, look at the other dot.
Slowly move back...
At a certain point, one of the dots will disappear!

"They're crooked I tell 'ya!"
This tricky vision picture is famous for causing disagreement. The lines are in fact parallel but the black and white colors form an illusion leading you to believe they are slanted. If you don't believe us, get out the old ruler and measure them for yourself.

One of the trickier illusions, size perception can play some wild tricks on our mind. You will notice the man in the foreground with what may look like a little toy to his side. This toy is actually the same size as the man in the background. Go ahead, take out your ruler....we did too!

As you look at the picture, you will see the detailed background. This drastically helps create the illusion. Also note if it weren't for the shadows of the man in the background, he could also be perceived as floating next to the two men in the front.

The hidden image presented above may seem a little hard to envision at first glance. But concentrate and you should eventually see a man and woman kissing. It occurs around his lip and nasal area. The eyes are the couples' hair and the lips are their arms around each other. You may be thinking, "this is just some old man", but look hard enough, and you'll see differently.

This tic-tac-toe type picture does in fact have small white circles in each intersection. After staring at the circles and concentrating on them, you will notice that many of the circles around them look black. It's almost like when you're staring at a light bulb and then try to look at something else...you see abnormal spots in your vision. This illusion, although quite simple, is one of the more fascinating ones.

As funny as it sounds, the ouchi illusion is quite amazing. As our vision is, we can only see movement through 3-D images, not 2-D. The trick is is to see the circle pop out or cave in.
Either way, if you can see this, then you might be able to see the ball move. Move your head side to side and there may appear to be some movement. The motion should occur at the edges of the circular shape.