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Eigenfunctions Seminar

Title: Linearity in perceptual space
Speaker: S. P. Arun (IISc CNS)
Date: 10 April 2015
Time: 2:15 – 3:15 pm
Venue: LH-1, Mathematics Department

Our vision is unsurpassed by machines because we use a sophisticated object representation. This representation is unlike the retinal image: on the one hand, two out-of-phase checkerboards, maximally different in image pixels, appear perceptually similar. On the other hand, two faces, similar in their image pixels, appear perceptually distinct. What is then the nature of perceptual space? Are there principles governing its organization? To address these questions, we have been using visual search to measure similarity relations between objects.

I will summarize a line of research from our laboratory indicative of a surprising linear rule governing distances in perceptual space. In the first study, we found that search time is inversely proportional to the feature difference between the target and distracters. The reciprocal of search time is therefore linear and interestingly, it behaved like a mathematical distance metric. It also has a straightforward interpretation as a saliency signal that drives visual search (Arun, 2012). In a second study, complex searches involving multiple distracters were explained by a linear sum of pair-wise dissimilarities measured from simpler searches involving homogeneous distracters (Vighneshvel & Arun, 2013). In a third study, dissimilarities between objects differing in multiple features were found to combine linearly. This was also true for integral features such as the length and width of a rectangle upon including aspect ratio as an additional feature (Pramod & Arun, 2014). Finally, I will describe some recent results extending these findings to more naturalistic objects.


Contact: +91 (80) 2293 2711, +91 (80) 2293 2265 ;     E-mail: chair.math[at]iisc[dot]ac[dot]in
Last updated: 29 Mar 2024