Dear Hoover:
Hi,
I herewith enclosed the list of the answers I received in response to my
question on Teaching software for visual modeling and visual perception.
Many thank to all those who replied (listed below).
Best regards, Silvio.
Thanks to:
Donald P. Gallogly dgallogly@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu
Betsy Hippensteel bh@vrg.com
Ronald Huebner r.huebner@tu-bs.de
Anya Hurlbert Anya.Hurlbert@newcastle.ac.uk
Alexander Logvinenko A.Logvinenko@Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
Marco Nijenhuis nyenhuis@natlab.research.philip.com
Manfred Mackeben mm@skivs.ski.org
Dieter Patzwahl dieter.patzwahl@uni-tuebingen.de
Andrew B. Watson beau@vision.arc.nasa.gov
Hugh R. Wilson hrw6@midway.uchicago.edu
Sophie Wuerger s.m.wuerger@keele.ac.uk
Original question:
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Can anyone indicate me where to get some teaching material in the field
of:
- Visual Perception
- Visual Neuroscience
- Machine Vision
- Computational Models of Biological Visual Perception
and, especially, DEMO and SOFTWARE TOOLS for laboratory practicals.
Unfortunaltely, I noticed that most of software is written for Apple
Macintosh (e.g., V1 & MT Model of Heeger & Simoncelli, Video Toolbox by
Denis Pelli). Are there similar packages for Unix or PC (MS-DOS, Windows)
platforms?
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L I S T O F A N S W E R S:
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Dear Dr. Sabatini:
I read your inquiry on CVNET and wanted to tell you about VisionLab and the
pcSTEREOSCOPE, a software/hardware package which is used as a lab practical
to teach the fundamentals of visual processes and research methodology. The
software runs on a PC, and is used by hundreds of universities worldwide.
Our homepage has a little information on VisionLab:
http://www.vrg.com
I am sending you more information via airmail.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Betsy Hippensteel
Marketing
======================================================================
Betsy Hippensteel
Director of Marketing
Vision Research Graphics
99a Madbury Road
Durham, NH 03824
e-mail: bh@vrg.com
phone: 603-868-2090
fax: 603-868-1352
======================================================================
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Dear Dr Sabatini,
I saw your email on cvnet and wondered whether you have heard of "color vision
demonstrations" by Hans Irtel. It has nice demonstrations. I have the
executable but I think it better to contact Irtel since i do not know whether
software is freely distributed. However I have included the help file.
The program runs under DOS and the email address of Irtel is on the end of the
help file.
Good luck
Marco Nijenhuis
Institute for Perception Research
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
nyenhuis@natlab.research.philip.com
IMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM;
: :
: Color Vision Demonstrations :
: :
: Hans Irtel :
: University Regensburg :
: 1991 :
: :
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM<
The program CVD contains a set of color vision demonstrations. They include
plain color fields with surrounds, cross context matching, spatial
brightness and color contrast transfer, and adaptation. Also available are
displays used in flicker photometry, additive color mixing, color order
systems and the diagnosis of color vision defects. Simulations of
experimental setups allow demonstrations of actual experimental methods and
effects. Any color field may be modified and adjustments are simultanously
displayed in a CIE xy-chromaticity diagram. Most demonstrations include a
context dependent, introductory help text with references.
IMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM;
: Installation Level 1 :
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM<
Running CVD requires:
o An IBM PC or compatible
o MS-DOS 3.2 or later
o Mouse with driver installed
o VGA color graphics adapter
o VGA analog color monitor
No special setup is necessary for this level of installation.
Command line to run the program:
CVD [options]
These options are available:
-b Show a monitor test image for adjusting the
brightness and contrast settings.
-d Use German Text (default)
-e Use English Text
-q Suppress the color selection field.
-g <gammatable> This option enables CVD to use a special gamma table
file. The format of these files is described in
the PXL Reference Manual (H. Irtel (1991): PXL: A
Library for Programming Psychological Experiments.
Unpublished manuscript.). The default is to use an
approximate gamma table with L=E^(2.5).
IMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM;
: Setting up the Monitor :
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM<
The color demonstrations of CVD require rather careful monitor settings and
surround conditions.
I. Surround Conditions
Optimal surround conditions for color demonstrations require photopic
adaptation conditions and no light from other sources directly falling on
the screen. Thus illuminate the room but position the light source behind
the monitor.
II. Monitor Adjustments
Each monitor allows controlling its luminance response by a brightness and a
contrast setting. Adjusting these is a two step procedure:
1. Areas with zero intensity have to be completely black. There must be no
visible background signal. Set the brightness control to zero and increase
it until there is some visible background intensity. Now reduce it again
until the background stimulus is gone. This puts the monitor's zero point
as high as possible without creating desaturation by a background signal.
2. White areas of maximum intensity must be as bright as possible without
having color fringes or loosing clarity. Increase the contrast control as
far as possible without getting images with color fringes.
To help in monitor adjustment the program CVD may be started with the option
-b in the command line. In this case a dark and a bright rectangle are
shown. Use the dark rectangle for step 1 and the bright rectangle for step
2. Both rectangles contain three vertical stripes. The inner stripe is
slightly brighter than the outer ones. The differences should be visible
both in the dark and in the bright area. So adjust the monitor such that
a) the dark area is hardly noticable different from the background
and the inner stripe is slightly brighter than the outer stripes,
and
b) the bright field is as bright as possible but the inner and outer
stripes still are discriminable.
Use the brightness control for a) and the contrast control for b).
III. Geometry
To get the correct geometry the monitor's horizontal and vertical size has
to be adjusted such that the single fields of the chromaticity diagram are
right squares.
IMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM;
: Installation Level 2 :
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM<
The program CVD is based on PXL, the author's library for programming
psychological experiments. This library provides a second level of
installation and system tuning for any program that is written with it. The
previously described first level is sufficient for using CVD in classroom
demonstrations. Using CVD as a research tool may require a more precise
calibration.
This is available via a special startup file and a set of parameters which
control PXL's inner working. The startup file is called STARTUP.PXL and may
reside in the current directory or in a directory which is indicated by an
environment variable. This variable's name is PXLTABLES. It has to contain
the full path name of the directory where the startup file may be found.
Environment variables are set on the DOS command line by the SET command. An
example is
SET PXLTABLES=C:\CVD
which sets the file path to the directory CVD on drive C.
Here is an example of a startup file which sets physical screen size, the
red, green, and blue screen phosphor chromaticities and the maximum
luminance values for the three color channels:
startup
screenwidth = 2260
screenheight = 1820
redprimaryx = 0.640
redprimaryy = 0.330
redprimaryL = 28.9
greenprimaryx = 0.290
greenprimaryy = 0.600
greenprimaryL = 103.4
blueprimaryx = 0.150
blueprimaryy = 0.060
blueprimaryL = 11.61
end
Note that there are certain syntactical restrictions within the startup file.
It has to begin with the keyword "startup" and end with "end". Parameters
are named, the meaning of the names in the example is apparent. screen width
and height are specified in 1 thenth of a millimeter. The luminance values
of the primaries specify the maximum luminance in candela per square meter
for the respective channel. Phosphor chromaticities are given in CIE 1931
xy-chromaticity coordinates.
The most precise level of calibration available is a gamma table with actual
measurements of the luminance response functions. Please contact the author
if you need more information on calibration.
Author: Hans Irtel
Universitt Regensburg
Institut fr Psychologie
Universittsstr. 31
8400 Regensburg
E-Mail: irtel@vax1.rz.uni-regensburg.dbp.de
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Dear Silvio
I have read your inquiry in CVNet about demos and video toolboxes.
An interessting place for this may be 'Hans Irtels homepage' with
some colour demos and his 'Psychological Experiment Libary' with
programming tools for the PC. Furthermore, you will find some more
interessting links.
http://www.uni-mannheim.de/unima/fakul/psychol/irtel/welcome.html
ciao Dieter
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Dieter Patzwahl
Uni Tuebingen
Neurologische Klinik Tel. 07071 29 86525
Hoppe Seyler Str 3 Fax. 07071 29 86507
72076 Tuebingen dieter.patzwahl@uni-tuebingen.de
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Prof Hans Irtel has written a very nice package of demos for the PC
from which laboratory practicals in visual psychophsyics may also be
constructed. Relevant addresses are:
Hans Irtel <irtel@psychologie.uni-mannheim.de>
http://www.uni-mannheim.de/unima/fakul/psycho/irtel/
Anya Hurlbert
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Hi,
concerning your question on the CVNET: I have developed two programs
(for Windows). One is commercial (in German) and demonstrates a lot of
Perception phenomena.
The other (VIAT) demonstrates visual attention phenomena, is on the internet,
and is for free.
You should look at my www home page, where more detail and the program
Viat itself can be found.
Best Regards,
Ronald Huebner
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Dr. Ronald Huebner
Insitut fuer Psychologie
Spielmannstr. 19
D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany
E-mail: r.huebner@tu-bs.de Phone: (+49) 531 391 2809
Fax: (+49) 531 391 8105
URL: http://www.psych.nat.tu-bs.de/rh/rh.htm
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You should ask Dr. Hans Strasburger, he has collected this kind of
information for years. His email handle is hans@groucho.imp.med.uni-muenchen.de,
he may also have a website associated with NASA-Ames, possibly
also with Beau Watson.
The journal "Spatial Vision" is currently preparing a special
issue about vision research and software, Styrasburger knows
everything about it, because he is the special editor.
That special issue will not be out for a few months, I guess.
There is an excellent program demonstrating visual effects as well
as research methods etc. called "InSight". You will have to ask around,
but to the best of my memory it is marketed by someone at the
School of Optometry in St.Louis, Missouri. I am sorry I don't remember
the detail. I have it, but the disks do not say anything about
where to get it.
Good luck -
---- Manfred Mackeben, Ph.D. ----
The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute
2232 Webster Street
San Francisco, CA 94115, USA
email: mm@skivs.ski.org
phone: +415 / 561-1667
fax: +415 / 561-1610
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Silvio,
You might take a look at:
http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/VisionScience/
Also, I am writing some material in Mathematica (which runs on PCs) but
it is not quite ready yet.
-Beau
--
Andrew B. Watson
MS 262-2 NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field CA 94035-1000
(415) 604-5419 -3323 fax
beau@vision.arc.nasa.gov
http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/
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Dear Silvio,
My teaching experience shows that Vision Lab from Cambridge Research System Lmdr may be of help.
Best regards
Alexander Logvinenko
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There is a program called Color Vision Demo (CVD) that has a good collection of
demonstrations on (you guessed it) color vision. The menus and documentation
are all written in German but they are fairly easy to decipher. Unfortunately,
I don't remember where I got it, but an archie search or some other internet
search for CVD or color vision demo should get it. If you don't have any luck
let me know and I'll send it to you.
Hope this helps,
Don
--
#=================================================================#
| Donald P. Gallogly Miami Univ. of Oxford Ohio |
| DGALLOGLY@MIAVX1.ACS.MUOHIO.EDU Center for Cognitive |
| Neuroscience |
#=================================================================#