CS 213: Visual Perception

Instructor: Aditi Majumder (Office: DBH 4056)
Timings: Tu-Th, 3:30-5pm
Room: ICS 243

Quarter: Spring 2008

Course Description

This course will serve as an introduction to the process of visual perception. The goal of this course is to provide the student with a understanding of what goes on behind of scenes of human visual perception, and how this understanding can help to advance the technologies of computer vision, computer graphics, multimedia and human computer interaction (HCI).
This course will offer both the physiological and the psychophysical approach to understand human vision and will relate the two fields together to create a consistent and complete understanding of the process of visual perception. For the physiological approach, the course will introduce the areas of lower level visual processing in the receptors of the eye and the lateral geniculate nucleus and higher level visual processing in different areas of the brain. In the psychophysical approach, the course will introduce the different psychophysical models of human vision, like the models of perceptual organization, perceptual segregation, and construction. Concepts of color, depth, movement and their visual perception will be introduced. To relate the materials presented in the context of different areas of computer science, examples of the quantification and use of these physiological and psychophysical models in computer vision, computer graphics, multimedia and HCI will be referenced.

Tentative Course Outline

• Introduction
• Optical Info
• Visual System
• Percieving Objects, Color, Depth and Movements
• Spatial Vision
• Perception and Action
• Applications
• Digital Color and Visualization Systems
• Image and Video Compression
• Gamut Matching
• Camera Calibration
• Depth Reconstruction

Tentative Course Schedule

Survey Project

1) [29 Apr] Objects and Scenes – Vision Science, Stephen E. Palmer (Chapter 6: Sections 6.4 – 6.6, Chapter 7: Sections 7.2 – 7.6) – Dennis and Pornpat (22^ndApr,24th Apr)

2) [ 1 May] Shape and Structure – Vision Science, Stephen E. Palmer (Chapter 8) – Julian (24^th Apr and 29^th Apr)

3) [6 May] Viewing Conditions and Chromatic Adaptation – Color Appearance Models, Mark D. Fairchild (Chapter 7, 8 and 9) – Hamed (29^th Apr,1^st May)

4) [15 May] Color Appearance Models - Color Appearance Models, Mark D. Fairchild (Chapter 10, 11, 12, and 13) – Arjun and Mitsunubo (8^th May,13^th May)

5) [20 May] Perceiving Function and Categories – Vision Science, Stephen E. Palmer (Chapter 9) – Vivek and Ish (13^th May,15^th May)

6) [27 May] Visual Selection and Attention – Vision Science, Stephen E. Palmer (Chapter 11) – Ken and Hyejung (15^th May,20^th May)

7) [29 May] Perceiving Motion and Events – Vision Science, Stephen E. Palmer (Chapter 10) – Yutian and Chian (22^nd May, 27^th May)

8) [3 May] Visual Memory and Imagery – Vision Science, Stephen E. Palmer (Chapter 12) – Nate and Joel (20^th May,22^nd May)

9) [5 Jun] Advanced Spatial Vision – Spatial Vision, Russell L. DeValois and Karen K. De Valois (Chapter 7 and 8) – Behzad and Setareh (27^th May,29^th May)

10)[5 Jun] Visual Awareness– Vision Science, Stephen E. Palmer (Chapter 13) – Jeff (29^th May,3^rd June)

Final Projects

1. Virtual Bulletin Board – Hamed

2. Spoofing Reflectance - Ish, Vivek and Arjun

3. Color seamlessness on multiple projectors – Behzad and Setareh

4. Estimating direction and speed of camera using optical flow – Yutian and Chian

5. Map visualization of source code – Nate and Joel

6. Effect of Handedness on Visual Attention – Ken and Hyejung

7. Perception Based Contrast Enhancement of Video – Mitsunubo and Jeff

8. Object Detection Using Histogram Oriented Gradients – Dennis and Pornpat

Grading Policy

• Midterm = 20% (Evaluation of Fundamental Knowledge)
• Survey Project = 45% (Evaluation of (a) Readiness to Understand Related Advanced Concepts, (b) Presentation Skills, and (c) Writing Skills)
• Final Project = 35% (Evaluation of Ability to apply to Real World Problems)

Course Materials

• Logistics
• Introduction
  Notes and Presentation (Classes: Apr 1 ).
• Optical Information
  Notes and Presentation (Classes: Apr 3 ).
• Visual System
  Notes and Presentation (Classes: Apr 3 , Apr 8 ).
• Perceiving Objects
  Notes and Presentation (Classes: Apr 10 ).
• Perceiving Color
  Notes and Presentation (Classes: Apr 15 ,Apr 17).
• Color Reproduction
  Notes and Presentation (Classes: Apr 22 ).
• Spatial Vision
  Notes and Presentation (Classes: Apr 24 ).
• Perceiving Depth and Size
  Notes and Presentation (Classes: Apr 24 ).
• Perceiving Movement (Classes: May 8 )
• Action (Classes: May 8 )
• Camera Calibration (Classes: May 6 )
• Objects and Scene (Class: Apr 29 ) – Dennis Park and Pornpat Nikamanon
• Shape and Object (Classes: May 8 ) - Julian Yarkony
• Viewing Conditions (Classes: May 13 ) – Hamed Pirsiavash
• Image/Video Compression (Classes: May 8 )
• Color Appearance Models (Classes: May 15 ) – Mitsunubo and Arjun Satish
• Perceiving Functions and Categories (Classes: May 20) – Ish Rishab and Vivek Singh
• Visual Attention (Classes: May 27) – Ken and Hyejung
• Perceiving Motion and Events (Classes: May 29) – Yutien Chen and Chienchih Chen
• Visual Memory (Classes: Jun 3 ) – Joel Ossher and Nate Gertsch
• Advanced Spatial Vision (Classes: Jun 5 ) – Behzad Sajadi and Setareh Rafatirad

References

• Sensation and Perception, E. Bruce Goldstein
• Vision Science: Photons and Phenomenology, Stephen E. Palmer
• Theories of Visual Perception, Ian E. Gordon
• Color Appearance Models, Mark D. Fairchild
• Spatial Vision, Russell L. DeValois, Karen K. DeValois

Practice Questions and Exams

• Practice Questions (Solutions )
• Midterm ( Due: May 29)