Essay · One
Each bar is the full extent of a signal that surrounds you. The lit slice is the part your unassisted body can register. Ticks are companies pushing beyond it.
Sight· Eyes
We see roughly 0.0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum.
CIE 1931 standard observer.0.0035%of the electromagnetic spectrum
Gamma rays → radio waves (log scale)Visible light, 380–750 nm
Hearing· Ears
We hear about 0.2% of what vibrates around us.
ISO 226:2003 equal-loudness contours.0.2%of the acoustic frequency range
Acoustic frequency, 0 Hz – 10 MHz20 Hz – 20 kHz
Smell· Nose
We can name almost none of the chemistry around us.
Bushdid et al., 2014; Niimura, 2009.<0.0000001%of detectable volatile chemistry
≈1 trillion distinguishable volatile compounds≈400 active olfactory receptors
Taste· Mouth
Taste is a five-bit vote on a vast chemical space.
Chandrashekar et al., 2006.~0.005%of known flavor-active chemistry
Known flavor-active molecules (≈100k+)Five to six recognized qualities
Skin is a narrow channel we barely write to.
Johansson & Flanagan, 2009.~5%of the somatosensory bandwidth
Somatosensory bandwidth, 0–10 kHzMechanoreceptor envelope, 0.4–500 Hz
We feel our body roughly; sensors measure it precisely.
Proske & Gandevia, 2012.~10%of measurable body-state signals
Continuous body-state signals — metabolic, neural, hormonalVestibular + muscle spindle signals