CS332 Visual Processing in Computer and Biological Vision Systems

Introduction

Reading:

Marr, D. (1982) Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information, San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, pp. 3-38.

Throughout this course, we will pursue an interdisciplinary approach to the study of vision that combines the perspectives of computation, perception and neuroscience. Such an approach contributes to the design of effective computer vision systems and the understanding of human visual processing. The philosophy and principles underlying this approach were eloquently expressed and demonstrated by David Marr in the late 1970's. Tragically, Marr died in 1979 at the age of 32. During the last few months of his life, he gathered his ideas about human vision into the above book that was published posthumously in 1982.

In your copy of the above excerpt from Marr's book, I highlighted the sections that are most important to read. They include the General Introduction and most of sections 1.2 Understanding Complex Information-Processing Systems and 1.3 A Representational Framework for Vision in the chapter on The Philosophy and the Approach. Section 1.1, which I did not include as essential reading, provides a personal perspective on the evolution of vision science during the 1900's, focusing on a few key discoveries and technical developments that influenced the formation of Marr's ideas. Parts of this section are more difficult to understand because they depend on knowledge of the vision literature and terminology. If you are interested in the historical evolution of vision science, I encourage you to read this section, as it conveys the excitement of these key discoveries in vision.

As you are reading this excerpt, keep in mind the following questions: What are the different levels at which we can describe a visual processing task? What questions are addressed at each level of description? How do different disciplines (computation, perception, neuroscience) shed light on the answers to these questions? Think about how some of the ideas expressed in these sections relate to concepts and principles that you learned in other computer science courses.