Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We SeeW. W. Norton & Company, 2000 M02 22 - 320 pages "Don Hoffman . . . combines a deep understanding of the logic of perception, a gift for explaining it with simple displays that anyone can-quite literally-see, and a refreshing sense of wonder at the miracle of it all."--Steven Pinker, author of How the Mind Works Cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman's exploration of the extraordinary creative genius of the mind's eye "has many virtues, of which sheer intellectual excitement is the foremost" (Nature). Hoffman explains that far from being a passive recorder of a preexisting world, the eye actively constructs every aspect of our visual experience. In an informal style replete with illustrations, Hoffman presents the compelling scientific evidence for vision's constructive powers, unveiling a grammar of vision - a set of rules that govern our perception of line, color, form, depth, and motion. Hoffman also describes the loss of these constructive powers in patients such as an artist who can no longer see or dream in color and a man who sees his father as an impostor. Finally, Hoffman explores the spinoffs of visual intelligence in the arts and technology, from film special effects to virtual reality. This is, in sum, "an outstanding example of creative popular science" (Publishers Weekly). |
Contents
A Creative Genius for Vision | 1 |
Inflating an Artists Sketch | 17 |
The Invisible Surface That Glows | 47 |
Spontaneous Morphing | 79 |
The Day Color Drained Away | 107 |
When the World Stopped Moving | 139 |
The Feel of a Phantom | 173 |
Peeking Behind the Icons | 185 |
Epilogue | 201 |
Notes | 205 |
223 | |
Illustration Credits | 277 |
281 | |
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Common terms and phrases
3D shape arrows boundaries Cambridge cells circuits and software Cognitive color constancy color vision computer vision concave creases cones convex cusps create curves depth devil's triangle disk display dots edges experience feel figure and ground filters frame Hoffman icon illusory contours instance interact interpret Kanizsa Kellman Koenderink light sources look luminance magic square minima rule motion perception move movie nature Necker cube neural neurons Neuroscience normal numbers objects occluding Optical Society Perception & Psychophysics phantom hand phantom limb phenomenal brain photometer principal curvatures Psychophysics Ramachandran relational realm retina rigid ripple rotate Science sensations Shipley smooth Society of America sphere stereo struct structure from motion subjective borders subjective contours subjective figures surface colors T-junction theory three dimensions tion touch transparent University Press Vision Research visual cortex visual field visual intelligence visual perception visual system visual world volleyball Yonas York Zeki