A project is aiming to to establish a virtual perimetric system to derive anatomical constraints of visual fields from virtual facial masks of human and primate subjects.

3D virtual masks are obtained from human subjects and primate taxidermy specimens and imported to a virtual perimeter developed with CINEMA 3D software (MAXON Corp.).
Virtual hemispheric searchlights positioned at the masks’ pupils, allow to
a) „paint“ the facial elements obstructing  their path and
b) demarcate the intersection of the unobstructed portions with the perimetric scales on the ground floor. Goldmann perimetry - imported to the virtual perimeter the data - will allow optimize congruence /calibration of searchlight positions.

First results indicate that for the human subjects the  resulting virtual visual fields  are in good agreement with standard data. The extrapolated field limits for chipanzees and baboons demonstrate significant obstructions of the ventral sector (>2m versus 0,5m in Homo) from the prognath facial design, while at the same time there appears to be larger binocular overlap at the horizontal meridian

This virtual environment is able to characterize and quantify of consequences of specific facial topographies on the visual fields and will be useful for related intra- and interspecific studies.