1/28/2004   slide 16
Ecological Development
of Vision 2/3
•James J. Gibson: vision evolved to help us stay alive in ancestral world—find food, avoid falling off cliffs, being eaten by lions, etc.
–Lab experiments leaving out crucial context for vision
–May understand physiology without grasping “vision”
•World not simplified shapes or isolated dots—not surprising trouble decoding them
•AI researcher David Marr asked “what is vision for?”: “…a process that produces from images of the external world a description that is useful to the viewer and not cluttered with irrelevant information.” [Pinker 1999] p213. [emphasis mine]
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Simplified in shape, color, texture, etc.: no “perfect (mathematical) sphere” in real world…


James J. Gibson, The Perception of the Visual World (1950). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1979),

Rather than study what confuses the eye-brain, Gibson focused on the amazing fact that in the complex visual work we live in, we are rarely mistaken about what we see. What rules govern our ability to make sense of this massive visual input??

For us, how can we take advantage of this powerful system we’ve evolved to help us communicate, think better?