Bela Julesz

Bio: Bela Julesz is an academic researcher from Bell Labs. The author has contributed to research in topics: Stereopsis & Depth perception. The author has an hindex of 51, co-authored 105 publications receiving 16076 citations. Previous affiliations of Bela Julesz include AT&T & California Institute of Technology.

Foundations of Cyclopean Perception

Abstract: 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.

Textons, the elements of texture perception, and their interactions

Abstract: Research with texture pairs having identical second-order statistics has revealed that the pre-attentive texture discrimination system cannot globally process third- and higher-order statistics, and that discrimination is the result of a few local conspicuous features, called textons. It seems that only the first-order statistics of these textons have perceptual significance, and the relative phase between textons cannot be perceived without detailed scrutiny by focal attention.

Visual Pattern Discrimination

Abstract: Visual discrimination experiments were conducted using unfamiliar displays generated by a digital computer. The displays contained two side-by-side fields with different statistical, topological or heuristic properties. Discrimination was defined as that spontaneous visual process which gives the immediate impression of two distinct fields. The condition for such discrimination was found to be based primarily on clusters or lines formed by proximate points of uniform brightness. A similar rule of connectivity with hue replacing brightness was obtained by using varicolored dots of equal subjective brightness. The limitations in discriminating complex line structures were also investigated.

Binocular depth perception of computer-generated patterns

Abstract: The perception of depth involves monocular and binocular depth cues. The latter seem simpler and more suitable for investigation. Particularly important is the problem of finding binocular parallax, which involves matching patterns of the left and right visual fields. Stereo pictures of familiar objects or line drawings preclude the separation of interacting cues, and thus this pattern-matching process is difficult to investigate. More insight into the process can be gained by using unfamiliar picture material devoid of all cues except binocular parallax. To this end, artificial stereo picture pairs were generated on a digital computer. When viewed monocularly, they appear completely random, but if viewed binocularly, certain correlated point domains are seen in depth. By introducing distortions in this material and testing for perception of depth, it is possible to show that pattern-matching of corresponding points of the left and right visual fields can be achieved by first combining the two fields and then searching for patterns in the fused field. By this technique, some interesting properties of this fused binocular field are revealed, and a simple analog model is derived. The interaction between the monocular and binocular fields is also describea. A number of stereo images that demonstrate these and other findings are presented.

Human factors and behavioral science: Textons, the fundamental elements in preattentive vision and perception of textures

Abstract: Recent research in texture discrimination has revealed the existence of a separate “preattentive visual system” that cannot process complex forms, yet can, almost instantaneously, without effort or scrutiny, detect differences in a few local conspicuous features, regardless of where they occur. These features, called “textons”, are elongated blobs (e.g., rectangles, ellipses, or line segments) with specific properties, including color, angular orientation, width, length, binocular and movement disparity, and flicker rate. The ends-of-lines (terminators) and crossings of line segments are also textons. Only differences in the textons or in their density (or number) can be preattentively detected while the positional relationship between neighboring textons passes unnoticed. This kind of positional information is the essence of form perception, and can be extracted only by a time-consuming and spatially restricted process that we call “focal attention”. The aperture of focal attention can be very narrow, even restricted to a minute portion of the fovea, and shifting its locus requires about 50 ms. Thus preattentive vision serves as an “early warning system” by pointing out those loci of texton differences that should be attended to. According to this theory, at any given instant the visual information intake is relatively modest.

A theory for multiresolution signal decomposition: the wavelet representation

Abstract: Multiresolution representations are effective for analyzing the information content of images. The properties of the operator which approximates a signal at a given resolution were studied. It is shown that the difference of information between the approximation of a signal at the resolutions 2/sup j+1/ and 2/sup j/ (where j is an integer) can be extracted by decomposing this signal on a wavelet orthonormal basis of L/sup 2/(R/sup n/), the vector space of measurable, square-integrable n-dimensional functions. In L/sup 2/(R), a wavelet orthonormal basis is a family of functions which is built by dilating and translating a unique function psi (x). This decomposition defines an orthogonal multiresolution representation called a wavelet representation. It is computed with a pyramidal algorithm based on convolutions with quadrature mirror filters. Wavelet representation lies between the spatial and Fourier domains. For images, the wavelet representation differentiates several spatial orientations. The application of this representation to data compression in image coding, texture discrimination and fractal analysis is discussed. >

Snakes : Active Contour Models

Abstract: A snake is an energy-minimizing spline guided by external constraint forces and influenced by image forces that pull it toward features such as lines and edges. Snakes are active contour models: they lock onto nearby edges, localizing them accurately. Scale-space continuation can be used to enlarge the capture region surrounding a feature. Snakes provide a unified account of a number of visual problems, including detection of edges, lines, and subjective contours; motion tracking; and stereo matching. We have used snakes successfully for interactive interpretation, in which user-imposed constraint forces guide the snake near features of interest.

A wavelet tour of signal processing

Abstract: Introduction to a Transient World. Fourier Kingdom. Discrete Revolution. Time Meets Frequency. Frames. Wavelet Zoom. Wavelet Bases. Wavelet Packet and Local Cosine Bases. An Approximation Tour. Estimations are Approximations. Transform Coding. Appendix A: Mathematical Complements. Appendix B: Software Toolboxes.

Neural Mechanisms of Selective Visual Attention

Abstract: The two basic phenomena that define the problem of visual attention can be illustrated in a simple example. Consider the arrays shown in each panel of Figure 1. In a typical experiment, before the arrays were presented, subjects would be asked to report letters appearing in one color (targets, here black letters), and to disregard letters in the other color (nontargets, here white letters). The array would then be briefly flashed, and the subjects, without any opportunity for eye movements, would give their report. The display mimics our. usual cluttered visual environment: It contains one or more objects that are relevant to current behavior, along with others that are irrelevant. The first basic phenomenon is limited capacity for processing information. At any given time, only a small amount of the information available on the retina can be processed and used in the control of behavior. Subjectively, giving attention to any one target leaves less available for others. In Figure 1, the probability of reporting the target letter N is much lower with two accompa­ nying targets (Figure la) than with none (Figure Ib). The second basic phenomenon is selectivity-the ability to filter out un­ wanted information. Subjectively, one is aware of attended stimuli and largely unaware of unattended ones. Correspondingly, accuracy in identifying an attended stimulus may be independent of the number of nontargets in a display (Figure la vs Ie) (see Bundesen 1990, Duncan 1980).