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The Human Visual System:
How Is Its Design Related to the Physics of the Natural Environment?
Wilson S. Geisler (Center for Perceptual Systems and Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin)
The human visual system is the result of evolution by natural selection and hence
its design must incorporate detailed knowledge of the physical properties of
the natural environment. This is an obvious statement, but the scientific community
has been slow to take it seriously. Only recently has there been an increased
effort to directly measure the statistical properties of natural scenes and compare
them to the design and performance of the human visual system. I will describe
some recent studies of the chromatic and geometrical properties of natural materials
and natural images, as well as some perceptual and physiological studies designed
to test how those physical properties are related to human perceptual mechanisms. |
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