How does the Deacon and Alien vision work?

We all know that the Xenomorphs have incredible vision. I want to completely discredit the Dark Horse novels for selling us short on there being a "jelly like eye material with sockets behind it".

We know that the Aliens can see in the vacuum of outer space. Also, have you ever wondered how the face huggers in the movies and books can see?

Since we can put these two facts together we must extrapolate that there is indeed something about the Adult Alien head and the Face huggers that answers this question.

Much like an insect that has a primitive compound eye the Xenomorphs have small groups of billions of cells that act like a compound eye and are much more complex at the molecular level. You cannot see these cells because they are camouflaged and help protect the cells that go deeper into the brain or vision cortex.

The Xenomorphs have tens of thousands of eyes and you can’t see them because it is a predator and it does want anything else to be able to see what it’s eyes are looking at.  At the molecular level different groups of cells in clusters, can be used to see optically better than 20/20 when nano based structures form convex shapes and then are contracted in the right way in over lapping layers. The opposite is also true it can contract these structures and bend them in combining layers of light receptive nano based groups to see microscopic detail.

Edit: I wanted to say that they could detect DNA but that would imply that they have an expanded language. These nano based creatures do not debate tactical situations in this way. There is one exception to this perhaps and it could be for another thread. In the fourth film two Aliens kill another one to melt the metal to escape the bio-laboratory.

The head in the front is round so it gives the Xenomorphs 360 degree stereoscopic sight of it’s entire surroundings. Nerves convey these many images to it’s brain where it’s expanded vision cortex is more densely entangle with neurons to process the greater enhanced vision. Remember this is a hunter, the ultimate killer. It uses sight as a weapon so it’s vision has to be as good a weapon as any other component of it’s non organic nano based biology. It has lots of eyes also so that in combat it can sustain damage to some of it's eyes and still have plenty left to see and eat you.

I would like to Agree with Dark Horse and think that there is some type of "chemical" telepathy; but, this would be limited and only used in combat or to protect the hive so that as one Alien saw something the rest could see it without making a noise or saying something like humans do. Chemical telepathy could be possible and be very complex almost like an evolved language. We have to consider that because these creatures are bio engineered nano based structures that form complex molecular structures that obviously give it enhancements beyond ordinary organic cellular processes.  

They do not have or need bicameral vision that would go along with the development of hands and opposable thumbs. We have the bicameral vision that we have because of millions of years of evolution. We first ate with our mouths then after a while we grew appendages to move and grasp things in new ways.

So there you have it. Remember it’s not always what you can’t see that is important but what your imagination can create. This is my explanation for how the Xenomorphs vision works.

I want to emphasize a few other points. When I first wrote this, until BigDave, stated it, I had no idea for years that the Xenos were nano based. I have known for decades that they are a bio weapon used by the race of beings who work with the Engineers.

In the novelization of the movie Alien, the creature is held mesmerized by a spinning green light for several minutes. Due to the absence of clearly visible eyes, it is possible that the creature uses echolocation to see its environment, much like bats. It may be for this reason that Xenomorphs hiss almost constantly. Though it may have the ability to see through an unknown structure, as they evolved differently from life on Earth. In the 2010 Alien vs. Predator game, it is mentioned on one of the Marine audio tapes that Xenomorphs have vision.

Xenomorphs may be able to detect their 'prey' through electro-reception. This is the method sharks use to detect even the most hidden prey. Creatures with the electro-reception sense can detect the electromagnetic field all animals produce allowing them to detect the creature's heart beat. This would explain how Xenomorphs always know where the humans are.

And, as depicted in the Aliens vs. Predator games, the Xenomorphs can also detect their prey using pheromones. Another theory is that the eyes of a Xenomorph are behind their black carapace and they see through it, similar to a one sided mirror (except in this case no one can see in, but the Xenomorph can see out)

Well before Prometheus and its mutations, the Xeno we all came to know has a domed head maybe for a reason, maybe this head shape and its surface acts pretty much like a Satilite dish does.

I would say that under this dome is millions and millions of sensors, and i would say they use some kind of electro magnetic way to see, maybe like radio waves.  Or these millions of sensors pick up and decode the radiation waves of light.

Oue eyes and most animals work the same, the eye decodes the waves of light into colour and its why we have a limited range of vision we can not see infa red because our eyes can not decode the infa red radiation spectrum.

Remember with our eye it is the Iris that contains photoreceptors, and these decode the light wave frequencies into electrical ones that our brain then decodes into colour.

Could the whole surface of the Xenos dome contain photoreceptors or a more advanced kind of cell, that is able to do the same task as our iris, by that the light waves are bounced of this dome and then some part of thise dome translates them into electrical signals the xenos brain then decodes.

Maybe the Xeno decodes them in a different fasion, maybe they do not see the full spectrum of colour we do, but maybe they see just one colour like black and white like many animals do, only there sight can also see in the dark and also they have other sensory cells and mechanisms that are able to also detect heat signatures and maybe they also use a method to detect the electrical fields to find  their prey. Like a Shark does.

Also the head is kind of the shape of a dolphins and maybe they have a sensory mechanism that is able to detect things the same way.

We also have to remember that eyes evolved over time and early creatures just had photosensitive cells on their body that did the same job of decode light waves to electrical signals, so they never had eyes. There skin was just like one massive photoreceptor and/or chemoreceptors.

Overtime evolution took over and these evolved into eyes where these sensory mechanisms became contains into a Eye, with that came greated sense of persception and more sense of colour spectrum.

So maybe under the Xeno dome is a mechanism that can detect the electrical signals given off a Organism like how Sharks Seek their prey and maybe it also has some kind Eco detection to detect each other.

But also maybe the dome also has photoreceptor and chemoreceptors so i can see its enviroment as well as rely on phemones and advanced smell.

Maybe it has all these senses combined onto one complex sensory organ that has a huge benefit for a ultimate predator?

Oh finally, maybe when the Prometheus Franchise is complete, maybe if we do not get much information about the Orgins, i think Fox needs to work with Giger and Ridley Scot and some others to at very least give us a book that documents the Xeno Orgins and Biology in great detail.

This book would definately help satisfy a lot of Alien fans who do not get the answers they was hopping for on film. 

In ALIEN, we can just about make out human eye sockets under the alien's carapace that probably have no eye balls, so i think we can rule out them seeing in the common light spectrum as us humans.

Of course, it's just speculation, but i believe they see, or sense, like worms do. Worms don't see like humans see (obviously.) However, they do have photosensative cells in their skin that pick up changes in light intensity. So, my guess is that they can make out different objects, but without the fine detail that we can see. Like a human with blurry vision. 

I also think that they are sensative to vibrations.

Well if we take the video games they seem to have in nailed on the head.

We see their vision is monocrome they dont see colours, just like black and white but they also see a glow around living things.

I would suspect this can be used in real terms that the Xeno has some sensory cells and mechanisms that may comprise of at least 2 ways to see.

1) Being as our eyes pick up radio wave radiation frequency of light spectrum and the Iris decodes this to electrical signals that the brain then decodes as colour and sight.

I would assume the Xeno does not work like this, it does not have sensors that react to the light waves that bounce of them, this is why they are not affected by the light off torches etc.

I would say they instead send out some kind of magnetic wave or some other kind of radiation that bounces off surfaces and bounces back to then draw a picture of structures.

Not like Bats, bats use a Eco based system based on sound, i suggest the Xeno uses waves or electrical pulses that hit a target then bounce back as signals their brain decodes.

What i am saying is light emits a frequency that bounces off objects and our lenses and thats how we decode the signals, i suggest the Xeno cannot read such waves, but instead produces its own waves that bounces off objects and then back to their sensors.

This would mean they would see the same and decode this information as a monochrome spectrum and thus they would see like black and white and would see the same regardless of if the room was light or dark.

2) They would also have a sensory mechanism that acts like how a Shark can hunt its prey in that they can detect the electrical signals given off by living creatures and maybe they also detect heat signatures that are both combined to make a outline of the prey/living organism.

I would also assume, that at the very least with the Face Huger stage that the Organism can detect CO2 given off by living Organisms respiratory systems and maybe detect phonemes given off by them also.

This is just how Mosquitoes detect a organism to then drink its blood.

As far as how they communicate with each other i would say they use phonemes like some insects do like Bees for instance and also Ants and that also we cannot rule out some kind of telepathy or Eco system like Dolphins and Wales use etc.

@everyone

Great posts, it never ceases to amaze me how innovating and clever the ideas are here. I am very impressed at every point made. We could debate the merrits of each of them but I think they are all great. I hate to play favorites however, BigDave stated the shape of the Xeno head may act like a dome for radar like capabilites. Amazing! I would have never thought of that ever. 

I think when we get together like this it's fun because instead of just maybe arguing one point over another point we can get a lot of different ideas that could just as easily be correct. I would think after having read the posts here that the Xenos would have to use a combination of techniques depending on the situation. This creature can addapt to any environment, the ultimate preditor. 

Agreed RedAnt!! Together this forum has produced some great topics and insights!! Every post in this thread has brought up valid points, and there are lots of really cool ideas.

I love topics like this, where we have only a few notions about how it works.  The idea that their senses are different than ours fascinates me.

Sometimes it's fun just taking it all in, seeing all the info people bring to the table, without coming to any conclusions yet.

wonderful thread every one. Ive always imagined that the whole cowl or jelly head, as Riddley once called it, is a kind of sensuary organ. whether actual vision or a series of snce inputs, who would know. They obviously can see as well in dark or light.