Foundations of Vision

Designed for students, scientists and engineers interested in learning about the core ideas of vision science, this volume brings together the broad range of data and theory accumulated in this field. The book consists of three sections and an appendix. The first section consists of an introduction and three chapters that describe image encoding. These chapters review optical image formation by the cornea and lens retinal sampling and wavelength-encoding by the photoreceptors. The text's second section consists of four chapters on image representation. The third section reviews how to interpret images in terms of objects. This section features two chapters that review computational and experimental studies of colour appearance, then motion and depth. These chapters are followed by a chapter with many demonstrations concerning object perception. Topics such as colour appearance, cortical colour-blindness, motion flow, motion appearance, motion physiology and visual illusions are also included in this part of the book. "Foundations of Science" is suitable for courses on vision science in psychology, neuroscience, engineering or computer science departments, and is suitable for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. The text contains special study exercises at the end of most chapters. The questions aim to enrich the main material and point the way to additional material in the literature. Finally, the book has an appendix consisting of four parts: an introduction to linear systems methods; a discussion of monitor calibration; an introduction to Bayesian classifiers; and a discussion of optic flow computation.