field of vision

plural fields of vision

1. The area that a person, an animal, etc. can see with its eyes (or each eye individually) without turning the head.

   The average normal field of vision extends outward 90°, upward 50°, downward 70°, and inward 60° from the point of fixation.

   1925 May, Nelson M. Black, “Compensation for Eye Injuries: Résumé of Work Done by Committee on Compensation for Ocular Injuries, Ophthalmic Section, American Medical Association”, in Bulletin of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, number 385, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 69

   4 more examples

   But when there is no Danger to our Eyes, either from Duſt or Light, we pull up our Eye-brows, that none of the Light may be ſtopt, but that all of it may fall upon our Eyes; by which the Sight or Field of Viſion is enlarged, and all the Objects above the Axis of Viſion are now ſeen: [...]

   1759, William Porterfield, “Of the Supercilia or Eye-brows”, in A Treatise on the Eye, the Manner and Phænomena of Vision. In Two Volumes, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed for A. Miller [i.e., Andrew Millar] at London, and for G. Hamilton and J. Balfour at Edinburgh, →OCLC, book I (Of the Parts Subservient to the Eye), section I, § 8, page 7

   Prisms with their base outwards, combined with the convex lenses, have only the effect of enlarging the outer side of both fields of vision. For all the purposes we now speak of, this combination of prisms with convex lenses is quite superfluous, even in some respects troublesome.

   1866 April, C. Schweigger, “On Simulated Amaurosis. (Read before the New York Ophthalmological Society.)”, in Edinburgh Medical Journal, Combining the Monthly Journal of Medicine and the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, volume XI, part II, number X, Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., →OCLC, 3rd part (Periscope. Medical Jurisprudence.), page 951

   [A]ny of you who drive automobiles know that you run in and out of traffic, that you live up to the courtesies of the road, by making use of the whole field of vision. You see out of one corner of your eye that the man on your right has parked too far from the curb and out of the other corner of your eye that the man on your left is driving too close.

   1925 April, Coleman R[oberts] Griffith, “Psychology and Its Relation to Athletic Competition”, in James Huff McCurdy, editor, American Physical Education Review, volume XXX, number 4 (number 206 overall), Springfield, Mass.: American Physical Education Association, →OCLC, page 194, column 2

   Occasionally a clubgoer happens to notice one of the cameras and responds by thrusting a middle finger or an exposed breast into Haz’s field of vision. Otherwise, the thousands of young men and women entering and exiting the clubs are his unwitting entertainment.

   2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2018

   Synonyms: field of view, visual field