Foundations of Cyclopean Perception [Hardcover]

Bela Julesz (Author), Thomas V. Papathomas (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2006

This classic work on cyclopean perception has influenced a generation of vision researchers, cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists and has inspired artists, designers, and computer graphics pioneers. In Foundations of Cyclopean Perception (first published in 1971 and unavailable for years), Bela Julesz traced the visual information flow in the brain, analyzing how the brain combines separate images received from the two eyes to produce depth perception. Julesz developed novel tools to do this: random-dot stereograms and cinematograms, generated by early digital computers at Bell Labs. These images, when viewed with the special glasses that came with the book, revealed complex, three-dimensional surfaces; this mode of visual stimulus became a paradigm for research in vision and perception. This reprint edition includes all 48 color random-dot designs from the original, as well as the special 3-D glasses required to view them.Foundations of Cyclopean Perception has had a profound impact on the vision studies community. It was chosen as one of the one hundred most influential works in cognitive science in a poll conducted by the University of Minnesota's Center for Cognitive Sciences. Many copies are "permanently borrowed" from college libraries; used copies are sought after online. Now, with this facsimile of the 1971 edition, the book is available again to cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, vision researchers, artists, and designers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

" Foundations of Cyclopean Perception was one of a small number of books that defined modern visual science in the period around 1970, when many of us entered the field. Julesz"s view transformed the way everyone thought about binocular vision. It was a revelation for its breadth, lucidity, technical virtuosity, and above all for its breathtaking beautya unique combination of art and science. It is wonderful to have it in print again." J. Anthony Movshon , Professor of Neural Science and Psychology, New York University

"*Foundations of Cyclopean Perception* was one of a small number of books that defined modern visual science in the period around 1970, when many of us entered the field. Julesz's view transformed the way everyone thought about binocular vision. It was a revelation for its breadth, lucidity, technical virtuosity, and above all for its breathtaking beauty - a unique combination of art and science. It is wonderful to have it in print again."--J. Anthony Movshon, Professor of Neural Science and Psychology, New York University

About the Author

Mike Kelley is a Los Angeles-based artist, noise musician, and writer. He is a member of the graduate faculty in the M.F.A. program at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 428 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1 edition (March 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262101130
• ISBN-13: 978-0262101134
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 8.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #685,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Aging > Eye Problems

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sculpting images out of pure depth and looking inside the black box, January 5, 2006

By 

Charles E. Nydorf (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Foundations of Cyclopean Perception (Hardcover)

Imagine yourself walking through a field of tall grass with one eye shut. Right ahead of you is a striped animal, a zebra say, that is invisible, perfectly blended with the grassy background. Now open both eyes. Suddenly, the zebra appears before you, its contours revealed in depth. Information about the zebra's shape was not present in the patterns of light that went into each of your eyes but the information is there in the difference between the patterns.
To create this effect artificially it is necessary to be able to generate and manipulate complex patterns of light and dark elements that model the highlights and shadows that fell on your eyes in that sunny field. It was Bela Julesz who recognized that computer technology made this possible. He called the stimuli that produce this effect 'random dot stereograms' and the process through which the effect works 'cyclopean perception'. Julesz also realized that the effect could be exploited to gain insights into the information processing that goes on in visual perception.
Julesz was inspired by an idea of Seymour Papert's to devise a methodology that he called 'psychoanatomy.' The idea is that information that goes into the eyes is extracted in stages. But, in general, the system the mediates between the eye and our
conscious knowledge of what we see is a black box; We can't tell in what order the information is analyzed. With a random dot stereogram, however, it is possible to distinguish between information that is available to the individual eyes and information that only becomes available once images from the two eyes are synthesized. One can infer that the first kind of information must be extracted early in the visual process, before the inputs from the two eyes come together while information of the second kind must be extracted later, at or after, the stage when the inputs come together.
Julesz explains all this very clearly and throws out many other ideas as well, including an interesting model of the physiology of stereo perception. The book is also a visual treat, full of striking stereograms.