Depth Perception

[rwilliam99]

Here’s a suggestion, this is how one-eyed people manage to get depth perception, and it can improve depth perception for anyone: move your head left and right to generate parallax between your drone and its background. You’ll get a much better idea where it is in relation to its surroundings.

Great suggestion. I will try this the next time I practice.

Thank you!

 

[rwilliam99]

Can’t you just adjust the drone position when you get close to the pad?
I guess that’s why I prefer hand landing.

For landing, that is easy. Other times it is when flying and I’m trying to figure out where I need to raise up/lower, etc to get around an obstacle. I can supplement with the camera, but I’m trying to be better at flying VLOS.

 

[Jonathan Atkin]

I am an ophthalmologist. Depth perception requires good binocular vision. If you have a slight misalignment of your eyes due to an ocular muscle imbalance it could cause this. I see many patients with a small esophoria or inward turning or a small exophoria or outward deviation of an eye than can cause difficult with depth perception
With esophoria (-inwared turning, convergence insufficiency) it worsens with age, and in fact, with exophoric (outward turning) it also worsens with age.
Get your eye muscle balance checked by an ophthalmologist.
Dale Davis MD

Thank you Dr. Davis. Monday, I'm havng cataract surgery and the first eye will be monofocal distance lens. 2nd eye likely the same tho my opthamologist and i have discussed multiple variations. I've decided against the Vivity and similar as much as they extend the near range, they suck up photons and I value all the saturation and precision of distance viewing I can get. as for Depth perception, I will report back if with two monofocal lenses, if my depth perception improves. Tho I will have corrective bifocal lenses for middle distance...with upper portion of the eyeglass frame to be clear. Or at least that's the plan.

 

[howard.allum]

Hand landing makes life much easier...

 

[jimlips]

It's good to see that I am not the only one with depth perception issues. I've got a friend who is the same age as I am (64), and he has excellent depth perception. But he has been flying real planes and model planes since he was a teenager. I was orbiting a radio tower with my Mavic Pro, which I had done many times, but this time, I somehow misjudged my distance from another nearby tower and flew (sideways) right into it! If only DJI would install SIDE sensors on their less-expensive drones...

 

[Droning on and on...]

, I somehow misjudged my distance from another nearby tower and flew (sideways) right into it! If only DJI would install SIDE sensors on their less-expensive drones...

Sorry to hear about your crash

DJI says, if only you would spend a bit more and get one of their drones with side sensors...

 

[WanderLost]

Do our eyes turn inwards as we focus our attention on an object that is moving closer to us or are they always meant to point in parallel etc. etc..

Your eyes turn inward as the object approaches - although you don't really notice this until you're looking at something just 2 feet or less in front of you.
Depth perception exists out to about 30 feet on average.
Practice helps to judge distances over time.
When landing, I find I have more trouble fighting the wind keeping my Mavic 3 centered on the landing pad. Sometimes as I hold the left lever down to land, I also keep pressing the right lever left or right to combat the wind - even just 10-15 mph breezes.

 

[WanderLost]

It's good to see that I am not the only one with depth perception issues. I've got a friend who is the same age as I am (64), and he has excellent depth perception. But he has been flying real planes and model planes since he was a teenager. I was orbiting a radio tower with my Mavic Pro, which I had done many times, but this time, I somehow misjudged my distance from another nearby tower and flew (sideways) right into it! If only DJI would install SIDE sensors on their less-expensive drones...

That was one of the reasons I sold my Air 2S and bought a Mavic 3. For the 360 degree sensors. The 2 times I got into trouble with the 2S was when I was flying sideways in an orbit or moving right or left to dodge an obstacle - and almost ran into something.
I suppose DJI needs some differentiation between models in order to encourage users to "upgrade" but hopefully, competition will continue to encourage innovation and the addition of capabilities to our drones.

 

[Robert Prior]

DJI says, if only you would spend a bit more and get one of their drones with side sensors...

I would do that, if they made one in the sub-250 g category.

I have a Mini 3 Pro, and I'd happily swap the front/back sensors for sideways sensors. I can see what's in front with the camera. I'm most likely to crash into something when moving sideways while filming and I misjudge the distance (because my depth perception isn't great).

 

[Robert Prior]

Here’s a suggestion, this is how one-eyed people manage to get depth perception, and it can improve depth perception for anyone: move your head left and right to generate parallax between your drone and its background.

I have two eyes and I do that. It gives me nearly a metre of separation rather than the few cm my eyes have.

If I'm landing in a particularly tight spot (because of bad planning) I'll walk around and view the drone from 90° to my original angle to see if I've missed something. But usually rocking back and forth is sufficient.

 

[Melvoid]

As I've been doing more practice flying one thing I've noticed is I have trouble with my depth perception. An example would be landing - I come down and think the drone is lined up well to land on my landing pad (or landing area I've chosen), but when I get closer to the ground, I realize it is lined up wrong. Same thing when flying around the yard - I need to ascend to avoid an obstacle - It seems as though I think the drone is farther away than it really is.

Does anyone have any suggestions or input on how I can improve my depth perception? Does anyone else struggle with this same thing?

Thanks

When I get a couple hundred feet away, I have a bit of trouble judging, too. If I want to get close to something, I'll fly above it, point the camera down so I can see what's directly below me... adjust accordingly, and then get into the desired position.