Visual Pattern Perception
Approaches to Shape and Pattern Perception
Spatial Frequency Analysis Approach
Gestalt Approach
Link - The face/vase illusion is fairly ubiquitous. What is less common, however, is the opportunity to have your face the one in the illusion. If you'd like to acquire some art that puts you into the face/vase illusion, check out this site.
Computational Approach
Feature-Integration Approach
Prototype-Matching Approach
Influence of Context on Shape and Pattern Perception
Perceiving Objects in the Context of Scenes
Perceiving Letters in the Context of Words
Illusory Contours
Distortions of Shape Due to Context
Selected Topics in Shape and Pattern Perception
The Role of Time in Shape Perception
Effects of Simulus Orientation
Ambiguous/Impossible Figures
M. C. Escher is probably the best-known producer of impossible figures. You can find many examples of his work on the web:
The Official M. C. Escher site
Zvi Har'El's M.C. Escher Collection
David McAllister's Escher Collection (see David's own art).
World of Escher
Andrew Lipson's LEGO site, wherein he shows five Escher constructions with LEGOs. Cool beans!
Shape Constancy
Thomson Higher Education has published two very useful CD-ROMs. John Baro (Polyhedron Learning Media) has developed Insight: A Media Lab in Experimental Psychology [see Form and Motion] and Colin Ryan (James Cook University) has developed Exploring Perception [see Module 2].
Link - Christopher Healey (NC State) has a very helpful page that illustrates many visual organization principles.
Link - Art, Vision & The Disordered Eye is a useful resource for exploring the intersection of art and perception (in this case, abnormal perception).
Link - V. S. Ramachandran (UC San Diego) has provided a number of illustrations of principles giving rise to shape (e.g., shading, motion).
Link - If you are interested in making use of images (especially of faces) for classroom demonstrations, you'll appreciate knowing about the page of links called Computer Vision Test Images, even though some links are broken. These images are found with other material at the Computer Vision Homepage.
Link - The Vision Science site has become a compendium of links to vision researchers and related materials (another source of images).
Link - Another source of information about vision (especially computational vision) and images is CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) at MIT. (See especially the CBCL images of faces, cars, etc.)
Link - The Pattern Recognition Files are no longer being maintained and may soon disappear, but you may find useful information therein.
Link - The Face Recognition Homepage has useful links to databases of images of faces, etc., as does the Face Detection Homepage (which also has a link to an older version of the Face Recognition Homepage).
Link - If you'd like to see faces as they age, check out this site that shows Diego Golberg and his family from 1976 to date.
Link - Alice O'Toole (University of Texas @ Dallas) maintains a page devoted to her research on face perception and recognition.
Link - The University of California @ Santa Cruz's Perceptual Science Lab Facial Analysis page has lots of useful links and demonstrations (e.g., McGurk effect).
Link - Michael Bach has created a site of visual illusions that contain some illusions of shape.
Link - The Grand Illusions site has a number of interesting illusions, as does the Mighty Optical Illusions site.
Link - Josh McDermott and Ted Adelson (MIT) have produced a very nice tutorial page regarding motion and form perception.
