My lab studies human vision, including visual search, peripheral vision, perceptual organization, and the impact of visual clutter on task performance. We take a three-pronged approach: 1) Computational modeling (computer vision-based, ideal observers, Monte Carlo simulations, and neurobiologically-inspired); 2) Behavioral experiments; and 3) Applying our models and understanding of human vision to applications such as image compression, design of user interfaces, and design of information visualizations.

Research Interests
Publications
Illusions and Demos
Curriculum Vitae

Patents

• The visual system as statistician
  • Does the visual system collect summary statistics in early vision?
  • A model of peripheral vision
  • Predicting recognition in the periphery
  • Predicting visual search performance
  • Predicting perception of visual illusions
    

• Texture perception
  • Shape-from-texture
  • Models for texture segmentation.
  • Segmenting images into textured and non-textured regions.
    

• Visual search
  • Visual search in cluttered environments – what is clutter?
  • Models for visual search and “popout.”
  • “Asymmetries” in visual search
  • Effects of background color on color search
    

• Application of human vision research to user interface design and information visualization
  • Predicting what groups people will perceive in a design.
  • Searching the web with enhanced thumbnails.
  • Document browsing aids.
  • “Doodle” icons to aid in searching for a computer file.
  • Tools for visualizing a large document on a small display.
  • Understanding clutter.
    

• Perceptually-based image compression and image quality
  • Reducing blocking effects in block transform coded images.
  • Perceptually based coding of still images.

• B.S. in Engineering, Swarthmore College, 1988. Senior design project: “Computer recognition of facial features.” Advisor: Stephen Platt.
• M.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1991. Thesis: “Iterative procedures for reduction of blocking effects in transform image coding.” Advisor: Avideh Zakhor.
• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1994. Thesis: “Local shape from texture.” Advisor: Jitendra Malik.
• Eliahu Jury Award for excellence in control, systems, and signal processing research, University of California, Berkeley, 1995.
• Post-doc, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, 1995. Work on recovery of structure and reflectance from image sequences of moving objects. Mentor: Jan J. Koenderink.
• NRC Associate, NASA Ames, 1996. Work on perceptually-based coding of images. Mentor: Andrew B. Watson.
• Member of research staff, Xerox PARC, 1997 to 2001.
• Area manager, Image Components & Services, Palo Alto Research Center, 2001-2003.
• Principal Research Scientist, Department of Brain and Cognitive Science at MIT, August 2003 to present.

William Ung
Livia Ilie
Jenna Kelly
Benjamin Balas
Xuetao Zhang