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
Curriculum Vitae

• 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