Food for thought from DUF

[2HOW]

Sights and the Mind: For nearly two years, Tim Sheehan and I have been debating the neural basis of his claim that his HexSite (http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/) serves most pistol shooters as a low-light sight - we are speaking of conditions under which there is still enough light to identify the target but not enough to distinguish the front sight. It was only this past Thursday evening that Tim adequately explained (in terms that I could grasp) the experiment that he believes will convince me. I have tried to test this a couple of times in the past, with no success, but those failures may have been primarily failures of communication. In any event, Tim recently found me a link to the old Nova program that he feels may describe the neural basis for this and related phenomena. The video runs about 52 minutes, much of which is not relevant to the subject at hand. Unlike Tim, I don't consider the relevant portions to be the exceptional cases of "blindsight" but rather the discussion about the secondary visual tracts and the secondary visual cortices to which they project. The existence of these secondary visual cortices appears to explain such things as the signals we get from peripheral vision and how we can navigate, both on foot and while driving, without concentrating on where we are going. They would also appear to explain the late Jim Cirillo's concept that shooters develop a subconscious perception of the silhouette of their handgun while focusing on the sights and can learn to use that silhouette to obtain a faster visual alignment, with little loss in accuracy. In our latest conversation, Tim clarified that the experiment he wants me to perform, the next time I have someone to assist me with a flashlight, is to compare the use of the Cirillo weapon-silhouette technique with conventional sights and with the HexSite. Tim believes that, in a reciprocal fashion, his HexSite allows a subliminal or subconscious refinement of the silhouette technique. I must emphasize that the debate in which he and I have engaged is collegial, not hostile. Regardless of whether you have any interest in the HexSite, if you teach or you struggle with visual issues of your own, the linked video is worth watching. Again, stay tuned - as soon as I can get someone to assist me, I will repeat the experiment, as I now understand it, with my Airsoft G19's, one of which retains the factory sight and one of which has been retrofitted with a HexSite.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2661634191857056612#

[GUNS-R-US]

I might like to try a pair of those on my PF9.

[Solus]

Seems to be needing a hex shaped knob on the front sight with the bottom side of the hex being the front sight post

[JoeG]

Interesting sights.
I know a little about how the brain sees and the explaination on the website is consistent with the current theory. Essentiall our eyes condense the information coming in to a much smaller stream of data going to our brains. Much of this compression is based on edges and how they move across the surface of the retina. The signal to our brains is broken up and distributed to parts of the visual cortex that process only lines; one for vertical, one of rhorizontal and one each for diagonals. I don't recall how color is handled but is in another subsection of the cortex. It seems very credible that using multiple concentric hex shapes alternating light and dark would use all these part of the cortex efficiently. It should be more effective than a circle peep sight.

The low light issue seems reasonable as well if yoour body/brain are familiar with the weapon outline and its pointing shape.

Guess I have another thing to buy and try! I hate itwhen that happens