How to Test Your Eyesight for Depth & Speed Perception

Your two eyes work together at all times to provide you with accurate depth and speed perception of the objects around you. Your ability to perceive depth of objects is defined as your ability to tell how far away something is from you. Likewise, when it comes to speed perception, you have the ability to tell how fast or slow an object is moving around you. There are several tests which have been developed to allow humans to test their eyesight for both depth and speed perception.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Marker
• Radar Gun
• Baseball

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Instructions

Depth Perception Test

• 1

  Draw a circle on a piece of paper and color it in with a bright-colored marker. Hold the paper in front of your face with one hand.

• 2

  Place the thumb of your other hand just below the circle and a few inches in front of the paper.

• 3

  Focus your eyes first on the circle. You should see two images of your thumb, one on each side of the circle.

• 4

  Switch your focal point to your thumb. Focus on your thumb, and you should see two circles now, one on each side of your thumb.

• 5

  Contact your optometrist to schedule an appointment if you do not see either the two circles or two thumb images. This could indicate you are having a problem with your depth perception.

Speed Perception Test

• 6

  Stand at one end of a parking lot with a friend behind you and a friend in front of you by 30 feet.

• 7

  Ask the friend in front of you to throw a baseball past you at his fastest possible speed. Have the friend standing slightly behind you record the speed of the baseball with a radar gun. Keep both of your eyes open, and tell them what speed you think the baseball was going.

• 8

  Repeat steps 1 and 2, but this time close one eye. It is not crucial for you to catch the baseball. Let it fly past you. Tell your friends what you think the speed of the second throw was.

• 9

  Ask your friend with the radar gun what the actual speeds were. The speed you estimated with your eyes open should be more accurate than the speed you guessed with only one eye open.