There are a variety of really great lectures called TED Talks. Go to http://www.ted.com/talks and look around for a lecture that relates to a topic discussed in our text. This might take some doing, but there are a few and they should be worth your effort.
After you watch the video write a brief discuss including 1) Why you picked that video, 2) What you expected to see, 3) What you actually saw and if you liked it or not, 4) What interested you the most? 5) How does the text discuss the material covered in the Ted Talk?
Make a list of key terms and concepts you used in your post.
Let me know if you have any questions,
--Dr. M
Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound effects us
1.I picked this video because what we hear is very important and it can impact what we do and how we do it. I am addicted to music so I am always using my auditory senses. I thought the four ways sound effect us sounded interesting and I wanted to learn more.
2.I wasn’t really expecting anything, but once he said the first reason, physiological, I assumed he would then talk about psychological and behavioral; he then also talked about cognitive effects. I also expected him to play some sounds to explain the point he would try to get across.
3.The video said the four effects that sounds have on us are first, physiological; for example loud alarms will initiate our fight or flight reactions. Second, psychological effects, like changing our emotional state with bird songs. Third, cognitive effects, for example we’re not able to listen to two people talk at the same time and we have to choose who to listen to. Another good point Julian Treasure brought up was loud music or sounds can lower our productivity at work severely. The fourth effect was behavioral, for example we move away from unpleasant sounds to pleasant sounds and if we can’t escape the sound it can have an effect on our health.
4.The fun aspect of this video was Treasure playing different sounds and I actually had some of the reactions that he said would happen. When he played a very loud sound I jumped and my heart started racing. When he had two people talking at once, I only picked out one conversation and not the other. I thought that was a great part of the video.
5.The book mentions a term called precedence effect, which says that we listen to the sound that first hits our ear and suppress other sounds right after. This could explain why we only hear one person talking when two are actually talking. Maybe perception plays a part; if we are looking at the person who is talking they could be the sound that we hear first and then continue to listen to; or whoever speaks first is the one that captures our attention. This is the only topic I could find in my text to relate to the video; the text mainly focuses on the structure of the ear, pitch, loudness, etc.
Terms: physiological, psychological, cognitive, behavioral, fight or flight, auditory, precedence effect, perception
Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our mind
1.) I originally picked this clip because I thought it would tie in well with class because at the end of chapter 3 in Visual Intelligence a case was mentioned where an individual was suffering from Charles Bonnett syndrome and was experiencing visual hallucinations.
2.) I clicked on the video thinking that it would be about hallucinations, like the title suggests, but assumed that it would be hallucinations caused by some sort of psychological problem, such as schizophrenia, or hallucinations from drug use.
3.) I was surprised to find out that this video was actually about Charles Bonnett syndrome. These hallucinations happen to people who are blind or have very bad sight. Sacks said that these visions are caused by a brain becoming overactive after the person's sight gets worse and worse. I really enjoyed this video because it is an interesting phenomenon that I had never heard of. He had quite a few cases that he shared that sort of explained what these people are going through who experience these. However, I think that the title is a little misleading. He never really offered any insight in why people hallucinate what they do, just that they might be kind of similar to dreams in that no one know EXACTLY why we dream the things we do.
4.) Sacks mentioned that about 10% of severely visually impaired people experience visual hallucinations, and also that about the same percent of severely hearing impaired people experience musical hallucinations. I thought this was very interesting and when trying to find out why this might be, I came across a website (http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Hallucinations.html) that stated that any of the five senses can experience a hallucination, we just hear about visual and auditory more frequently than the rest. After I thought about it a little, I realized that we do sometimes hear about these, they just usually aren't referred to as hallucinations. And example of a somatic (touch) hallucination would be feeling like theres something on you, or after the loss of a limb feeling like it is still there (phantom limb). Taste (gustatory) and smell (olfactory) hallucinations seemed less common to me, and on the website it said that these were usually from medical disorders rather than psychological disorders.
5.) The reader mentions this disorder, but I could not find any thing about it in my text, or anything about hallucinations. Most of us have probably heard that when you lose one sense, the others get more sensitive to compensate for this loss. I think this might be an alternative way for the brain to compensate for the loss of sight (or hearing, smell, touch, taste) by creating images for the individual to see.
Terms: Hallucination, Visual, Auditory, Somatic, Gustatory, Olfactory, Psychological, Charles Bonnett syndrome,
Beau Lotto: Optical Illusions Show How We See
1) I chose this video because we have talked and read a lot about optical illusions. Also, everyone seems to be very interested in them.
2) I expected to see a couple of pictures and hear an explanation behind the illusions. I also expected to hear something about how we construct what we see because the reader has burned that idea into my mind.
3) I really enjoyed this video. What I actually saw was so much more interesting than I thought it would be. Lotto begins by showing the audience 2 boards, one black and one white. They both had colored dots on them. The audience was asked to identify which of the colored dots was the same on both boards. I knew, because of other illusions I have seen, that it was the gray dot. We were shown multiple illusions and told that the light that falls on the object is meaningless and that our brains redirect information to make sense. He put it as redefining normality. We were also told that no one is an outside observer of nature and that we are defined by out ecology.
4) One of my favorite optical illusions that we were shown was one with 4 boxes. The top 2 boxes were colors, 1 was red and the other was green. The bottom 2 boxes had mirror images of a desert scene. There was a little white dot between the top 2 boxes and between the bottom 2. We were told to stare at the top dot for about 30 seconds. When told, we then looked at the bottom dot and the result was that we saw a red desert on 1 side and a green desert on the other side. He explained this by saying that while we stared at the top dot, our brain was getting used to having the certain colors on each side so when we looked to the bottom dot, our brain continued to do this for a moment.
5) My text agrees that we can learn a lot about our perception from visual illusions. It says that we make unconscious inferences that determine what we see much like the reader basis that we create what we see. My text also talks about many of the same things that the reader does such as subjective surfaces and figures but does not go into the detail of the reader. It does say that we see things because of the way the light hits them and if necessary, the mind will reconstruct these things to be seen as a complete item or object.
Terms: optical illusions, visual, perception, subjective surfaces, redefining normality, ecology
Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see
1) I chose this video because we have been focusing a lot on optical illusions in class. The title of this video made me think that the clip was going to explain how our eyes misread cues sometimes because of the rules already programmed into the brain.
2) I expected to see examples of our eyes being fooled into seeing motion, or misreading color and line cues. These are the types of optical illusions I am familiar with. When I let the video load, I saw two boards with many different color dots on it. One board’s background was black and one’s was white. I assumed he was going to show how context changes our experience of colors. I immediately thought of the text when I saw this, because the reader described how important context is to our brain when decoding sensory information.
3) I found the video very interesting. I especially thought it was interesting when he showed a picture based on the amount of light the objects reflect. When he showed the same image according to the quality of light the objects reflect a jungle cat is shown ready to pounce that stands out from the green background. This showed how important color perception is to us for our safety and wellbeing. He also shows how we don’t actually read all the letters when we are reading. We skip over the letters that don’t impact the word, so in all actuality we are actually skimming when we are reading.
4) What I found most interesting in this video was the demonstration of the light reflection over light quality. When I stared at the original image, I only saw black and white splotches. The speaker even said to be looking for a predator, and I couldn’t find any signal of danger. When he showed the quality of light however, the black cat stood out dramatically from the green leaf background. I think this proved to me how our sense of color does more than make life more interesting. It’s important for our survival as well.
5) My text talked about how context influences what we see, which I thought was displayed very vividly in the video as well as in the reader. My textbook also discussed the ratio principle. This states that two areas that reflect different amounts of light will look the same if the ratios of their intensities to the intensities of their surrounds are the same. This explains the illusion of why when the grey square was placed against a black background it appeared different then when it was surrounded by white, even though the shades of grey were the same. The book also says that this is why it’s so easy to read papers that have been printed on white paper with black font. The extreme differences make it easy for our eyes to perceive. When these colors begin to blur together in closer related colors, our brain has more trouble differentiating them.
Terms: ratio principle, context, light reflection, optical illusions, quality of light reflection
1. I picked the video by Evan Grant on Making Sound Visible through Cymatics. I picked this video because of its title. All our lives we have believed that you can’t see sound and you can’t hear sight. In order to see and hear you put the two together and construct language. Things you hear you relate to a sound and a sound you hear relates to an object. What about people who can’t hear? They have to construct images differently.
2. I expected to see a device that showed vibrations, or sound waves. Things in science we have already seen such as the Seismograph type of technology. I didn’t expect to see the images Grant called Cymatics.
3. I really liked what I saw. Grant showed sand on a plate that vibrated when a sound stimuli was presented. The sand then moved into complex images that changed as the frequencies changed. This video reminded me of the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” This music teacher wanted to share music with his deaf son and did it through vibrations and lights. Cymatics is shown by Grant as the images that appear when sound waves move in this example sand on a plate that is vibrating. The higher and more complex the sound or tone the more complex the image. It’s a new study that gives us a new aspect and science to sound. This science makes sound visible in a way that is beautiful. The images that were shown are complex and all that was done was the sound vibrations moved the sand or on the computer to make images.
4. I am surprised by how complex the images are. This new science really makes sound visible. For people who can’t hear this is another way for them to experience sound in many different ways. I’m interested to see what they do with this new technology and how they will use it in the future.
5. Because this is such a new science Cymatics are not mentioned in the Sensation and Perception text. The text does talk about the stimulus for hearing. In discusses how our perception of sound depends on the vibrations of objects. We don’t see the vibrations but depend on them. The text also discusses how pitch, tone, and frequency make a difference in how sounds are heard. I think this science could be a big breakthrough in sharing sound with those who can’t hear by showing them the images.
Terms: Cymatics, Seismograph, sound stimuli, frequencies, pitch, tone, and frequency.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see.html
1) I picked this video to see if I could learn new information about illusions than what I already know. This turned out to be about color, not the weird visual effects we normally would think of an optical illusion.
2) I expected to see images that would seem like they are moving, images of ink blots that have 2 images with in, etc. I was expecting a boring lecture behind optical illusions.
3) Ted showed how light effects our brain in seeing different colors, when in fact they are the same colors under the same lighting. The light that targets an object is meaningless to our brain. It sends information from the retina to the brain that these two colors are different, but in reality they are the same. He also shows how we don’t read all the letters when we are reading. We skip over the letters that don’t impact the word, so we are actuality skimming the words we are reading. I remember an email chain a while back that was like this. It had missing letters in about a 300 word paragraph. It's weird and exciting how our perception only uses what it needs to see it.
4) I liked the bee hive experiment. It was interesting how they correlated the blue light with the green light. We would have never thought of that as humans, but bees with a fraction of retinal cells as us can compare color differences to our eye.
5) My text does not talk about optical illusions in general, but it does talk about how the effects of attention on perception. The question is whether paying attention to one of the gratings would make it appear to have more contrast. Based on experimental evidence, we can now say that attention does, in fact, enhance the appearance of an object. I learned that prolonged exposure to chromatic color (ex. red) shows that color perception can be changed by chromatic adaptation. Adaptation to the red light selectively bleaches your long-wavelength cone pigment, which decreases your sensitivity to red light and causes you to see reds and oranges with your left adapted eye as less saturated and bright than those viewed with the right eye.
Here's what I am talking about:
http://www.planetperplex.com/en/item35
Terms: Perception, Cones, Retina, Optical Illusions, Chromatic Adaptation, Wavelength
Nick Veasey: Exposing the Invisible
1)After looking through the pages of videos only one picture and heading caught my eye. The first reason that I choose this video was the picture of a shell that showed the inner spiral of the shell and as you progressed away from the center color and transparence differed. This caught my eye because I thought that it looked pretty cool and artful. The heading also caught my eye and got me wondering on how and why someone would expose invisible aspect of objects.
2) What I expected to see from this video was pictures of objects that someone painted or took a picture of. Another expectation I had was to hear how Mr. Veasey was inspired to create his work and the process he underwent during creation. Although I thought the video was going to be about art, I expected the video to only show pictures of Mr. Veasey’s work. The last thing that I expected was that this video would apply to our class material.
3)The presentation was actually about how Mr. Veasey was inspired by the first X-Ray and proceeded to focus his life work on taking X-Rays of objects. The X- Rays of the objects reveal the underling structures things are made of. One of the first pictures shown was of shoes and the sole grid the shoe has. It was really cool to see the 3-D objects put onto 2-D pictures but the objects still maintained their 3-D characteristics. Other objects included a bus with a skeleton that was repositioned, plants, toys, machinery (plane, tracker), clothes. He used a self built X-Ray shack that has X-Ray equipment(cargo X-Ray machines), a 1980's drum scanner in order to put his images on film. After he explained his process he showed the beauty of his work by adding color to this pictures. I liked the presentation because it showed the structure of things no one knew existed. It blew me away on how complex objects are and made me realize how much underling structures are taken for granted. The finished work was amazing to look at with and without color.
4)The aspect of the presentation that interested me the most was the captivating beauty of the structures of things. The X-Ray brings out the underling structures and gives the viewer a new perspective on everyday objects.
5)The first couple chapters of the reader relate because of the construction of 2-D images to 3-D images. The rules of constructing images makes it possible to see the 3-D structures on a 2-D X-Ray picture. The X-Rays provide a new visual angle of 3-D objects and an advanced visual acuity. Meaning that the X-Rays have new visual ques to focus on and we are able to see the small details of structures better than we could.
Visual angle
Visual Acuity
Visual Ques
I found some sites that showed the work in more detail, Its worth taking a look!!!!!!!
http://www.nickveasey.com
http://www.younggalleryphoto.com/photography/veasey/veasey.html
1) I held off on this assignment a little longer than I should have, I was looking through the videos yesterday and just wasn't finding anything that I liked. I came back to it this morning and found one they just posted about Tom Shannon painting with a pendulum. I chose this video because I myself, even though I can't describe all of the types of artwork or how they're made, I still really enjoy looking at artwork.
2 and 3) I actually saw near what I expected. I saw a man using the basic principles of gravity, centrifugal and centripetal force, and the laws of motion to create bright, colorful, and almost mesmerizing works of art. I very much enjoyed this video because it took a lot of things I like from high school and college physics and merged it with something else I very much enjoy.
4) What I found the MOST interesting is that someone actually CREATES artwork in this manner. The idea that you can create optical illusion-looking patterns with the laws of nature.
5) This video would be more consistent with reading found in the reader than with the text book in regards to how our eyes construct shapes and objects through the use of dots and lines and how our eyes follow basic "rules" in order for us to perceive shapes. However, there are parts of the book that explain the physiology of the eye and how our eye processes information through the retina and further explains how rods and cones interpret incoming information to give our brain "accurate" pictures of what we're seeing.
Concepts: Gravity, Centripetal Force, Centrifugal Force, Pendulum, Retina, Rods, Cones
Herbie Hancock: All star set with Marcus Miller and Harvey Mason
1. I actually I picked this video because I love Herbie Hancock. He is probably the best jazz piano player living today. He has been on top for many years because of his uniqueness in improvisation also his ability to play fast and precise. Also Marcus Miller is one of my favorite bass players. He is world renowned for his perfection of the slap bass techniques. Harvey mason is a very prestigious drummer who I like for his finesse and taste that he incorporates on the drums. Another reason why I picked this video is because it ties into the sensation and perception in a unique way. I am a lover of jazz so in looking for videos on Ted’s talk; I came across one that struck my attention instantly because of who the artists were.
2. In looking at this video I expected to see them play more of the traditional stuff because they have been known for that most of their careers. I also thought it might have been some straight ahead jazz versus some fusion type stuff along with various free patterns displayed throughout the video. I also expected Marcus and Harvey to solo, they were basically there as accompanist. They in fact had a major role in some improvisation played. They all outlined their roles as musicians which are very difficult tasks to accomplish in music today. Musicians end up stepping on each other’s toes instead of working together in the construction of a piece.
3. I saw them using a lot of eye contact to figure out what the other person was playing. They used a lot of free method things to transform various ideas and for transitional phrases throughout the piece. One thing I thought was distinctive in their playing was the fact that Herbie was playing on a Korg Keyboard. He usually plays on a 9 foot grand piano made by Steinway and Sons. He was switching the keyboard settings back and forth to sound like a voice and a piano which added a lot of favor to the song Watermelon Man. Marcus was also doing some tricks with slapping the bass that were unique. I think Harvey had the hardest job of all three because he had to keep the rhythm together as well as add different textures and colors within the Cymbals. I loved the interaction between these three talented musicians. One person would do something then another would catch on to the idea and create a new one. This shows construction and imitation which are key aspects in playing jazz. The amazing part about it is they did this the whole time they were playing. Keep in mind that this went on for 25 minutes.
4. The thing that interested me the most throughout this video was their ability to construct these ideas and place them thoroughly. It’s really hard to find good musicians that construct and interpret ideas in that fashion. I also like that it kept me on the edge of my seat to see what was going to happen next. Some music is boring and you just listen to it but other music makes people curious as to what is going on. The best part of all is that they looked like they were having fun. If all else fails, have a good time playing music because it’s a joyous experience.
5. The textbook elaborates on a lot of things used in this video. The term attack was used which is a part of sound that amplitude increases. This was shown by Herbie Changing dynamics throughout his song. Also he would change the settings to make the sound more apparent. Harvey also demonstrated that by using colors in the cymbals. One key term the book used was auditory stream segregation which is perceptual organization of complex acoustic signals into separate auditory events. This also allows each stream to be heard as a separate event. This comes into effect when they were feeding off each other’s ideas. They would have to hear each event separate when they were picking up different melodic contours from each other. Chords were a key concept that the text spent some time discussing. This is created when a cluster of three or more notes are played simultaneously. Herbie displayed the use of constructing chords throughout this whole piece. This is what makes the song worth listening to. Chords have an effect on the listener’s ear by way of emotion. If you are playing minor chords they usually seem dark and saddening. If major chords are being outline they have a happier effect on people and are more pleasant to listen to. Tying in to chords, consistence and dissonance comes into play. Consistence is notes that are grouped into main intervals that outline the root and the fourth. Dissonance is more of a cluster of notes that have no relation to them. Of course it talks about tempo and rhythm which are common terms used in everyday life.
6. Fusion jazz, straight ahead jazz, improvisation, free jazz, rhythm, textures, colors, construction, interaction, amplitude, attack, auditory stream segregation, melodic contours, chords, cluster, consistence, dissonance, tempo
1) I picked "Exposing the Invisible" because of the title itself, as well as the description that this work "look[s] at what the human eye can't see". Particularly after going through our class and beginning to understand that our perceptual reality is governed by a very specific set of rules to which humans have specialized toward in the evolutionary march forward, it occurs to me that there could have been other ways of seeing things, and that, in fact, there are other life forms who see images in completely different ways than we do - more diverse light spectrums, and probably with more sharply attuned visual processing centers.
2) I expect to see visual images in new ways. I am not sure if the video will show me images in the way that any other creature sees them, but I do understand that what humans see is limited, and there are always different ways of seeing things in both a literal and a figurative sense, that help us to better understand the world and our place in it - and hopefully in doing so, humans become more humble about their shared place on the planet.
3) As it turned out, the images shown by this unique photographer are not visual images seen in ways that an actual living creature would see them (so far as I am aware), but do have an intrinsic appeal for their own sake. The images revealed the underlying structures of a variety of objects, from ever-day mundane articles of clothing, the complex structures of nature, and intricately engineered large scale mechanical objects.
The video was enjoyable, as I was able to see something novel and unique, and think about the underlying aspects of every day objects in a new way.
I was a little disappointed that I didn't find anything specifically relevant to relate to our sensation and perception text, or the way that other creature see and perceive differently than humans do.
4) The most interesting object was actually just the plants which had clearly defined boundaries where capillary action took place. It was quite beautiful, and enlightening seen in such revealing black and white.
5) Discussing how the text discusses the material in the TED talk is a slight stretch, but I suppose you could relate the actual viewing of the images to the way that our visual rules help us to distinguish light and dark so that the subjective contours of shapes give dimension and shape for our visual interpretation of the x-rayed objects.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see.html
1) I picked this site because I always think that optical illusions are pretty interesting to look at and I enjoy finding out how the illusions really work.
2) I expected to see things like lasers or the Necker cube the stereotypical versions of optical illusions.
3) This was more about light and how our eye reflects the light to create the illusion. I thought it was interesting and something that I had never considered before.
4) The most interesting thing that I saw was the illustion with the spinning pyramid and the mirror. When ever you blinked the pyramid appeared to change directions when really it did not it was just the image in the mirror appeared to be turning opposite and your brain could not decide which way it was really going.
5) The book doesn't really talk about optical illusions but it does talk about how we see things. Light goes to the retina and it reflected. This is what causes the color illusions it is the light that is reflected off of the colors.
Nick Veasey: Exposing the invisible
1) While looking for lectures that I could relate to class, the video with Nick Veasey: Exploring the invisible really caught my eye. I liked the thought about exploring the invisible and seeing what we cannot see originally.
2) I didn’t have many expectations on what I would see. I wasn’t clear on what it was that was invisible that he wasn’t showing. I figured it was basic images that we saw everyday, but somehow missed. I didn’t think it would be showing us X-rays and what we don’t see and what is under the surface that is important.
3) Veasey starts out by talking about x-rays and the history of them, and explains that that is how he shows us the invisible. The image that stuck out for me what the bus that had the people on sitting on it that he x rayed. It was amazing; I can’t even imagine the extents he had to go through to x ray a bus. He is amazed with nature and that is what he loves to x ray. He shows flowers, women’s drawers, fingers, animals, and many things like that. However he focuses on nature. He also showed up his x ray shop, and the equipment he uses. He also shows an airplane which is a very interesting photograph. He has a picture of a dead body of and turns it into the body of a football player that is alive gradually. He says the most difficult things to x ray are the delicate things, such as a feather, because it is hard to capture the structure of a delicate feather. He shows a video of the equipment, and his work is very dangerous, because he could possibly be exposed to radiation at any moment. He discusses in detail a doll, which has human and alien features in an X ray form which is as he describes as “spooky”.
4) I was extremely interested in most of what he showed. There was a picture of a man drinking a drink and how he showed it in the extra highlighting the drink with orange, was amazing. The visual images he constructs are moving. I like how he shows things that are the structure of the things we see in everyday life. The bus full of people shows a man reading a paper and wearing glasses, but you can only see the structure of these objects, which is a fascinating way to see the world.
5) Nick Veasey’s art and how he makes it relates a lot to what we are discussing in class and the reader. Chapter four talks about how we are master part makers, and this is true, we can see things and just put them together, and in a way we can image by just looking at the object the structure of the things we are seeing. It also discusses 2D and 3D representations and this is how we see the images. The minima rule states that we divide shapes into parts at negative minima, along lines of curvature, of the principal curvatures. This is exactly how we see an X-ray and make out the shapes.
Terms: Minima, structure, 2D, 3D, master part makers.
Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound effects us
1) I picked this video because I thought it would be interesting to learn a little more about sound. In a lot of our readings and discussions we have been talking mostly about our eyes and how we see things. I think it's just as important to learn about our ears and how what we hear effects our everyday lives.
2) I didn't really know what to expect.I thought that maybe it would discuss the ear more and how it processes sound.
3) What I actually saw was a discussion about how everyday sound effects how we behave on a daily basis. The four ways that sound effects us are physiologically, psychologically,cognitively, and behaviorally.
4) The most interesting part to me was the discussion on how sound effects us cognitively. He stated that job performance relies greatly on our surrounding sounds that we hear. In open floor offices where people only have cubicals, it's harder for people to focus because of the different comotions taking place. Productivity is much higher when people have their own individual offices or if they do have a cubical, it was suggested that they bring headphones with soothing music playing to boost their concentration and productivity.
5) I did not find a whole lot in my textbook that related to the clip. The book mostly talks about the hearing process and things such as pitch, frequency, and amplitude. It did discuss briefly, at the beginning of one of the chapters, about how there are many different functions of hearing. It talks about how hearing is important because it allows us gather information about something, even if we cannot see it. It is one of the things that helps us survive. Also, it discusses how there are two different definitions of sound: physical and perceptual. The physical definition states that sound is produced by pressure changes in the air and the perceptual definition states that sound is an experience that we have.
Sounds, hearing, effects of sound, productivity, cognition, psychology, physiology, behavior
Beau Lotto; Optical illusions show us how we see.
1- I picked this video because I really like optical illusions, and i find it interesting to figure out how and why they do what the do.
2- I was sure this video would go through some of the more common illusions, such as the old woman/ young woman picture, the 3d cubes, and those sorts.
3- I really did like the video clip. It was nice to have a break from the more common optical illusions and see some new ones tossed into the mix. Lotto first explains why we need to see color, and then proceeds to tell us how bad we are at it. OK, so maybe he's a bit nicer about it. Many of the illusions he performed sowed and explained how even though we may have this awesome gift of color perception we often are dependent on various visual cues to put the whole picture together, and often we can be easily fooled.
4- I really liked the last illusion Lotto did. He began with two separate squares with multiple holes through which light was shone. one box had a purplish light, the other was yellow. he then placed a square of the opposite color over only the center of the boxes which then altered the color of those center circles. then the fun part, in front of my silly seeing eyes, he removed the cover of the boxes to reveal just the colored squares, and suddenly what i had seen as the same color in the center areas only seconds before appeared to be two entirely different colors from each other. oh how easily tricked my visual perceptions are!
5- my text had a really great section on chromatic adaptation and a similar example to what Lotto had, which i also found quite interesting. The text also covered the process of seeing in color, the rods and cones, light reflection, and a bit on long and short waves and how we perceive those.
Terms: visual perceptions, optical illusion, cones, retina, light waves (short and long), subjective surfaces, chromatic adaptation
1) The video that I picked was Jamie Heywood: The big idea my brother inspired. At first I thought that this was a video I would just be skipping over because it didn't relate but more and more I watched the more I thought about how it relates to our class. Jamie talks about ALS a disease that has a 3 year life span normally when diagnosed with it, it slowly deteriorates peoples bodies to a point where they eventually cant walk, talk, breath, eat, cant really do anything. The reason I stuck it out is because I couldn't change it, the man talking you could tell cared a lot about what he was talking about and than he also talked about the his brothers sensation and perceptions slowly started to fail.
2) I think the video covered the main areas that I thought it would talk about, however he went into a little bit different direction that I thought he was going to. He started to talking about healthcare and ways people are able to keep track of different parts of their body. But he did talk about how his brother slowly started to loose different senses and loose his body all because of this certain disease.
3) I did enjoy watching the video because it did show a lot about what the disease and also different ways that people are able to take care of themselves and watch what is happening to their body. But I didn't think it would be that medically related to healthcare and what people need to do to change. I thought it should have talked more about his brothers health and what was happening to his body as his disease slowly got worse.
4) I have heard of ALS but never really actually sat down and paid attention to someone or something about the subject. I think it is a very unfortunate thing and probably affects more people than I think but I cant believe some type of disease like this is actually out there. From what I got of the video almost anyone at anytime can have this rare diseases happen to you, and it takes you to a point to where you cant even take care of yourself.
5) The textbook didn't talk about the actual ALS disease but it did have a lot of information about the senses. It talks about all of the different senses and what they do, however it doesn't talk about what it is like to loose them.
Terms: Deteriorating, cognitive, lithium, sensation and perception,data
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see.html
1.I picked this lecture by Beau Lotto because I thought it would be the most pertinent to what we have been discussing in the past few chapters.
2) I expected to see a variety of different illusions. I was surprised that alot of them had to do with light, angles, and how color meets the eye.
3) Beau demonstrates how light helps us perceive objects. He explains why the light is important to us, because it makes color. If we didn't have color in the world we would have been attacked by the predator we couldn't see in the jungle picture. Beau explains that our brains have not evolved to just see the world around us, that they have evolved to be subjective in seeing it.
4) I thought it was really interesting that Beau had made alot of these visual illusions himself. I liked the cube he had made alot, I thought it was a cool concept that we can take grays and white and almost seamlessly intermingle them. The desert red/green play on light was interesting also and got a good reaction from the crowd. Sadly, it was hard to see on the computer screen.
5) The text refers to, again, the idea that we subjectively reconstruct objects to fit our mental schemas. It relates alot to what Lotto says when he explains that the brain does not just see the world, but it subjectively and unconsciously constructs it in ways that are most useful to us.
Subjective reconstruction, illusion, perception
1.I chose Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see. The reason I chose this video was becase the reader has been focusing a lot on optical illusions and because I did a project on optical illusions and I find them very interesting.
2.I expected to see a bunch of different optical illusions. I thought that the more popular illusions such as the Necker cube would be shown, but the illusions had a lot to do with lights and colors.
3. I felt that the opening trick of the different colors of circles on the black and white boards was very interesting. Beau explained that every living system is able to detect light and that seeing color is one of the simplest things that the brain does, but even at the simplest level context is everything and it was difficult to tell what colors matched up. Color is an important factor because if we didn't see color we would have been attacked by the picture of the predator. Beau also states that the light that falls on our eyes is meaningless because it could mean anything!
4. I felt that all of the illusions were very interesting. The ones that I enjoyed the most were the very first one with the different colored circles, the deserts and the red and green squares, and the black and white tiles. It was a little difficult to get the same effect on the computer screen but it was still very cool to watch and it would have been amazing to see in person.
5. My text discusses and shows a large number of optical illusions and explains why color is so important. The text also discusses how context influences what we see, which Beau showed very well in his video clip. It also described the role of the visual system such as the rods, cones, retina and what purposes they serve. Also, the text talks a little bit about subjective surfaces, but doesn't go into great detail like the reader does. Overall, this was a very interesting video that correlated with the reader and my text.
Terms: optical illusions, context, rods, cones, retina, subjective surfaces.
I picked the video on the Animate a photo real digital face by Paul Debevec.
On how he (they) used a lighting stage that uses 156 LED lights to capture a picture of a face, showing the muscle tone, facial expressions, and how it is used for video games or visual computer programs to make charters look real..The one interesting thing is that they use polarizes which only goes through the first upper layer of the skin. The Diffused textures elaborates on the first layer that makes it look like a plastic face. In a sense if the face can be manipulated, and transferred to a computer program can it be used in or for cross race identification, or perception of what we see.
If the of lighting captures the wrinkles, and face muscle tones of the skin is in the readings is concave/convex cusp. if the pictures captured the use dots along the surface of the face, as well as the change of construction or using lines that capture the lights in different angles and directions. the Camera can represent the way the eye sees thing by using the lens and reversing the image (field of view)to a film and in the eye it is sent within the retina (cons 7 million/rods 120 million.) which the light seen the image to the brain by way of photoreceptor though the optic nerve to the primary visual cortex.
Tom Shannon’s Anti-gravity Sculpture
http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_shannon_s_magnetic_sculpture.html
1) I picked this video because it shows fascinating sculptures that are more than just a work of art. Most of his sculptures are scientifically conceptualized and beautifully designed in defiance of physics’ laws.
2) I was expecting to see innovative pieces of art because I had seen the artist’s clip “the painter and the pendulum” and after watching it I immediately thought of him as a very ingenious man. I was very impressed with his painting technique because he included science in his projects so when I saw this video in the what to watch next bar, I thought his sculptures would be something like structures made of metal like mini Eiffel towers; kind of an engineer’s work of art.
3) To my surprise, his sculptures were not what I was expecting to see. He managed to blend art and science with such harmony that it looked like my eyes were being deceived. I really enjoyed this video because I’ve never seen sculptures this type before. I think he took art to another level.
4) What really caught my attention were the sculptures that have pieces levitating. When I first saw them it seemed like it was a visual illusion and I couldn’t make sense of what I was watching. At first I started looking for strings attached to the metal parts to keep them in the air. I also looked around them but I couldn’t see anything. I finally believed it wasn’t a trick when the artist grabs the top piece and then puts it back in the air right above the bottom piece. The artist later explains that those pieces are being suspended by a magnetic field. Although I don’t fully understand how a magnetic field works, I felt kind of relieved to know that the existence of that object had an explanation.
5) This video made me think of think of Locke’s statement from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. He explains that if you were taught to distinguish between a cube and a sphere only by using your touch, you wouldn’t be able to tell which one is which when seeing these two objects in front of you. You would need to use your touch to identify them because you haven’t obtained the visual experience of a cube and a sphere. When I saw the sculpture, I couldn’t associate what I was seeing with anything. I think is amazing how we associate things so quickly from the moment we open our eyes that we don’t even notice it, until we encounter an unrecognizable object that seems impossible. We stare at it and carefully study it just like when we were infants and tried to make sense of the world around us. A world that seems to be unnoticed now that we are adults.
Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different
1. Well, to be honest, I chose this video because it was one of the shorter videos listed. I also chose it because of it's title.
2. I expected to learn about why Derek Sivers was weird. That is what I initially thought the video was about. I wanted to know what Derek Sivers does that makes him wierd or different according to others.
3. In this video Derek Sivers talks about streets vs blocks and how I would label the street name and not the block. Others might label the block instead of the street and how in some areas people do this. Another example he used was in music when we count we do so, 1,2,3,4, where as African artists use the one last and the 1 signifies the end, so, 2,3,4,1. And how to us(me) that seems completely wrong or different. Some cultures or people do things backwards. It doesnt mean it is wrong, it is just another way/interpretation of doing something. After watching the video I thought that it was pretty cool. It was very interesting because I never knew that some people or cultures thought that way or did things like that.
4.The video was very interesting. I really enjoy reading and or watching things about other people or cultures that do things differently than us. I think that it symbolizes how diverse the human nature is. It doesnt make it wrong, it is just a different approach to things that we think there is only one way of doing.
5. When trying to find something relevant to what the video talked about in the book was a little tough. I didn't find a whole lot relevant. So instead I tried to find something that could be related and found a couple things. The book talked about "the attentional gaze". A basic definition of this is what you decide to place your eyes upon. You gaze at something that catches your eyes and then lock your attention on that particular object. To relate this to the video, a person would walk down the street and gaze around at the street names to know exactly where you are at, or how many streets you have left before you get to the bus stop or whereever you are heading. You gaze and then focus in on the destination(the street signs). Others may think that looking at the blocks gives a person a better understanding of where they are or how many blocks they have left to walk until they get to the bus stop. Another thing that was discussed (and we spoke about this in class today) was about how you adapt to the things around you. People adapt to the color fringes and line curvatures around them to help with many things. They determine where people are at, so they don't bump into them; they determine what the car looks like and judge if they have enough time to cross the street before the car comes too close. These aspects are used in everyday life and it goes to prove that there are a lot of things that we may not realize is happening. We do things without even realizing it.
6. The attentional gaze, color fringe, line curvatures
Dr. Pawan Sinha: How the Brain Learns to See
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/pawan_sinha_on_how_brains_learn_to_see.html
1) The title of this video is what originally attracted me to it, “How brains learn to see.” I was looking for a talk that was slightly longer and had a more in depth investigation of the idea’s discussed rather than a 3 to 5 minute demonstration of visual psychology and this video fit the bill perfectly.
2) I expected to learn, as the title suggests, about object recognition some information about the development of visual intelligence.
3) Although the entire talk was very interesting and informative it isn’t until about the 9:20 mark that the talk really became exactly what I expected and wanted to see. The talk focuses on the development of a research and medical facility to investigate problems with blind children. Dr. Sinha’s initial research demonstrated first and foremost, that research done in the 60’s by Hubel and Weisel indicating that there is a critical period in development after which children will be unable to ‘learn how to see’ was false. The plasticity of the brain allows for people who have been blind in some cases at least in their 30’s to still learn to see.
In testing the recovery of patients who had been blind their entire lives after surgery very interesting information about how the brain learns to see was revealed. Their most basic experiments involved basic object recognition. Patients would be shown 2 out-lined figures (e.g. a square and triangle) side by side and asked to indicate how many objects they saw, and then also to trace the objects they saw. When separate patients have no problem with this task almost immediately. When the figures are overlapped however the patients see three objects which they can trace, but which they say are simply random shapes.
Dr. Sinha explains that initially the visual field is given a mass, a conglomeration, of pigments, lines, colors, etc. (i.e. a visual field with infinite possible interpretations, as Hoffman would say). It is simply a patchwork of stimuli. After several months the patients are able to distinguish the overlapped images not as ambiguous lines on a page but as the outline of two images. The question Dr. Sinha wanted to answer was, how do they learn this? His answer? Motion. When they take people very early on in recovery and place overlapped images on a screen and ask the patient ‘how many’ being told 3 random objects, if they then manipulate the screen so that one of the images begins to move around on the screen this motion indicates to them that the objects are in fact 2 outlines.
They have subsequently tried to create a computer program that can learn to recognize objects by providing video cameras tracking motion. The optics of the camera would have poor vision like a child, and then see everything a child does. The question is will the computer begin to ‘favor’ and recognize faces and objects without being programmed to do so. They claim that in a matter of minutes this computer program ‘learned’ to do this. But the key area of the talk is not on this programming so I’d be interested in seeing some follow-up information regarding this.
4) The most interesting thing to me was his argument that over and over again in their experiments they demonstrated that ‘the one thing the visual system needs in order to begin (processing?) the world is dynamic information.” Motion processing is the foundation of visual processing. Hoffman’s ‘rule of generic views’ suggests that we construct an interpretation of any particular object such that the image is stable; meaning that slight changes in position (viz. motion) would reveal the same object. This supports Sinha’s argument that motion processing is fundamental to visual processing. Through motion processing we come to learn that boundaries, borders, and whole objects have a type of continuity when they, or we, move around.
5) As I just mentioned this information is supported in Hoffman for sure, as most of his rules suggest that we assume that objects seen in 2D are the same as their 3D counterpart. If motion is fundamental than 3D objects are what we have the most experience with, and thus why we must develop rules which will turn the 2D image at our retina’s into 3D real world images.
Goldstein agrees with both Hoffman and Dr. Sinha. My version of Goldstein states Hoffman’s “fundamental problem of vision” on pg. 95, though he refers to it as ‘the inverse projection problem”. “Ambiguity (of objects seen from a distance) occurs because a particular image on he retina can be caused by an infinite number of different objects.” There are ‘countless possible interpretations.” Humans are adept at recognizing changes in illumination vs. property changes of the object, recognizing objects from various angles, and all sorts of other skills which go into perceiving objects. I actually just found that on pg. 97 of my book they cite research on face detection from Dr. Sinha. All these aspects of visual intelligence do seem to indicate that motion, the ability to recognize and experience motion helps us to develop the rules we do to perceive objects. This is no doubt because looking at an object from multiple viewpoints reveals more information about the object (viewpoint invariance), and creates a more stable understanding of the properties of that object.
6) Object recognition, dynamic information processing, illumination, viewpoint invariance, fundamental problem of vision.