Why Do Streetlights Look Like Stars? This Eye Simulator Shows You.

Ever noticed how streetlights, car headlights, and distant stars turn into glowing halos, spikes, and strange patterns at night? Well, someone built a simulator that lets you explore exactly why that happens. Meet Engiscope, an interactive browser-based tool that simulates how light behaves as it passes through the human eye. And it's surprisingly mesmerizing. Here's what you can experiment with: - Pupil size: See how changing the opening of your eye affects light patterns - Eyeglass prescription: Adjust sphere, cylinder, and astigmatism axis - Eyelashes and eyelids: Discover how they create distinctive light streaks - Optical aberrations: Experiment with distortions, halos, and starbursts - Chromatic aberration: Watch different colors of light separate - Night scenes: Explore simulated glare from bright lights in darkness The simulator uses optical calculations, including something called the point spread function (PSF), to model how a tiny point of light spreads into patterns. It's not a medical diagnostic tool or a perfect reproduction of your individual vision, but it's a fascinating way to explore the physics behind what we see. And the best part? You can change the parameters and watch the results evolve. Turns out, your eyes have been doing procedural light effects long before computer graphics existed. Try Engiscope yourself: https://graycrawford.com/engiscope #Engiscope #HumanVision #OpticalIllusions #PhysicsSimulation #CreativeCoding #Shorts