New virtual reality tool allows you to see the world through the eyes of a tiny primate

Imagine that you live in the rainforests of Southeast Asia, you’re a pint-sized primate with enormous eyes that are roughly the same size as your brain, and you look a little like Gizmo from the movie, “Gremlins”. You’re a tarsier— a nocturnal animal whose giant eyes provide you with exceptional visual sensitivity, enabling a predatory advantage. A new virtual reality software, Tarsier Goggles, developed at Dartmouth College, simulates a tarsier’s vision and illustrates the adaptive advantage of this animal’s oversized eyes. Both the virtual reality build and the team’s findings published recently in Evolution: Education and Outreach are available for free online.