Oxyopia Abstract

October 24, 2008
Friday, 4:00 PM
489 Minor Hall

Barton Anderson, PhD
Professor, School of Psychology, University of Sydney
Host: Steve Palmer

Title

Geometric and photometric constraints in the perception of contours, surfaces and materials

Abstract

One of the most fundamental problems in vision is determining how the visual system recovers the properties of surfaces. The images that reach our eyes are structured by the interactions that light has with surfaces, and we exhibit a striking capacity to segment surfaces along occluding boundaries, interpolate and extrapolate missing surfaces and edges, and extract the reflectance and material properties of objects. In this talk, I will argue that the visual system solves these problems by utilizing a combination of geometric and photometric information to segment, group, interpolate, and recover the surface properties of visual scenes. I will demonstrate the functioning of these principles over a diverse range of phenomena, ranging from the perception of lightness, color, transparency, surface gloss, and illusory contours.

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