I'm in Sarasota for the Vision Science Society Meeting. One of the highlights of the meeting for me is always the Demo Night. Held in the G.Wiz Science Museum, VSS participants present demonstrations of visual phenomena. Some are astounding, some mystifying and all are invariably fascinating. This year there were twenty or so demonstrations. Besides the demonstrations there is always the opportunity to watch a group of grown vision scientists 'investigating' the museum exhibits.
Probably the most dramatic demo was David Berg's Robotic Monkey Head. This disembodied ape is equipped with a video camera and image processor, and responds to its visual environment with a range of head and eye movements, and frighteningly human facial expressions. Watching us, watching him, the apparently sentient simian responded to the gestures and objects presented, by orienting towards them, expressing his responses in facial expressions and even flying into head shaking paroxysm when particularly excited. The robot is controlled by software that analyses the scene using a salience based visual attention algorithm. If you missed it, find out more here and watch the video including the amazing facial responses.
Some of the most surprising visual illusions are often the simplest. Alan Gilchrist presented just such an an illusion: using just two spot lights and some disks of paper he convinced us that all was not as it seemed. When the two lights partially overlap the paper disk it appears that only the paper disk is actually illuminated, and the illumination from the lights actually appears as paper disks. However the true nature of the scene is simply revealed by waving a hand or piece of paper over the display. You really have to see it to appreciate how convincing this illusion is.
Arthur Shapiro presented yet more baffling illusions based upon the Induced Contrast Asynchrony. If you haven't seen his earlier illusion his Shapiro Perception Lab is well worth a visit. This year's new demonstrations included Gradient-Gradient illusions with static objects placed on a moving background. These appear to contort causing them to 'bob' and pulsate.
Two visual phonena and illusion websites were represented. As well as demonstrations of curved visual space, Kenneth Brooker showed off the Project Lite. This website has many downloadable demonstrations of many aspects of vision. Peter Thompson presented samples from his ever growing Viperlab collection which illustrates the study of visual perception.
Probably the most popular exhibits were the Strobe and the Monochromatic rooms. Illuminated by slow stroboscopic flashes, the Strobe room from Richard O'Brown of the Exploratorium, provided a most disconcerting experience. Ken Nakayama's Monochromatic room was illuminated by sodium discharge lamps, and showed how a true monchromatic world would look, with everyday objects becoming unfamiliar without the experience of colour.
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