Brandon DeHart

I didn't find out I was an aphant until after I'd finished my PhD in robotics. It was a big shock to realize that when all of my peers were saying things like "imagine it moves this way" or "visualize the motion, " they could see something moving in 3D in their heads. I had always just thought about the angles, the equations, and the other analytical properties of the robot or system, not a movie playing in my head. When there are things that seem to necessitate visualization (in physics or otherwise), I turn to my always-on-hand notebook, mini-whiteboard, Boogie board, or whatever else I've got and sketch it. I think one of the reasons that I sketch so much, and learned how to build 3D computer graphics, was to compensate (albeit subconsciously at the time) for my lack of in-head visualization capabilities.