Lecture: Perception for Computer Graphics (Myszkowski/Serrano)

Perception for Computer Graphics (Lecture, Winter Semester 2020/2021)

Specialized Lecture for Computer Graphics/Visual Computing

Karol Myszkowski Ana Serrano

(c) xkcd.com

As computer graphics is producing images and videos that are ultimately perceived by a human, it's mandatory to account for how the human visual system (HVS) is processing this information. The HVS is complex, exhibiting many non-linearities as well as feedback and is only partially understood. While this poses a challenge, it can also be seen as an opportunity which can be exploited in image compression, watermarking, denoising, enhancement, upsampling, etc. Computational models which can predict the human response to the distortion of visual content are important when this opportunity is taken. To this end, our course covers the basic theory of perception research, including

What is perception?
Designing experiments
Analysis and statistics

and the practical applications in computer graphics, including

Eye physiology and image formation
Brightness and contrast
Color
High dynamic range and tone reproduction
Image compression and image quality
Depth and shape perception
Material perception
Perception in Virtual and Mixed Reality (VR/AR)

The target audience are students in computer science or related fields. This course covers topics from psychology and physiology that are relevant to computer graphics, and novel perception research and applications in computer graphics and vision. The objective is to transfer knowledge, experience and competencies that are required for doing research in perceptual computer graphics, and that are useful in many related fields, such as experimental psychology, or usability studies in human-computer interaction.

Prerequisites:	Computer graphics and image processing, and the related math.
Language:	English.
Evaluation:	Final exam (oral): Wednesday, 10.03.2021. Time: 9:00-16:30. Place: Zoom Meeting. Re-exam (oral): Wednesday, 24.03.2021. Time: 9:00-10:30. Place: Zoom Meeting. Please refer to the detailed exam schedule

Lecture time:	Wednesday, 10:00-12:00
First lecture:	Wednesday, 04.11.2020
Room:	Zoom Meeting ID: 912 4546 3698

Schedule:

Lecture 01: Introduction, Course Overview (04.11.2020) youtube Video

Lecture 02: What is Perception? (11.11.2020) youtube Video

Lecture 03: The Eye: Optics, Spatial Acuity and Temporal Integration (18.11.2020) youtube Video

Lecture 04: Designing Experiments, Part 1 (25.11.2020) youtube Video

Lecture 05: Designing Experiments, Part 2 (02.12.2020) youtube Video

Lecture 06: Statistics (09.12.2020) youtube Video

Lecture 07: Material Perception (16.12.2020) youtube Video

-- Winter Break --

Lecture 08: Luminance, Contrast, and Lightness (06.01.2021) youtube Video

Lecture 09: Tone Mapping (13.01.2021 youtube Video

Lecture 10: Image Quality Evaluation (20.01.2021) youtube Video

Lecture 11: Depth and Shape Perception (27.01.2021) youtube Video

Lecture 12: Eye Movements (03.02.2021) youtube Video

Course resources: Send an email to Ana Serrano for the password. No password required if you're on the campus network. If you cannot play videos on your web browser, please try downloading the file and opening it with a media player on your computer. You may use free and open-source VLC media player.

The following list contains the most relevant books for this lecture:

Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology, Stephen E. Palmer, The MIT Press, 2002.
Foundations of Vision, Brian A. Wandell, Sinauer Associates, Inc., 1995.
Seeing: The Computational Approach to Biological Vision, John P. Frisby and James V. Stone, The MIT Press, 2010.
Experimental Design: From User Studies to Psychophysics, Douglas W. Cunningham and Christian Wallraven, A K Peters/CRC Press, 2011.
Seeing in Depth: Basic Mechanics (Vol. 1) and Seeing in Depth: Depth Perception (Vol. 2), Ian P. Howard and Brian J. Rogers, Oxford Psychology Series, 2012.
Visual Perception from a Computer Graphics Perspective, William Thompson, Roland Fleming, Sarah Creem-Regehr and Jeanine Kelly Stefanucci, A K Peters/CRC Press, 2011.
High Dynamic Range Imaging: Acquisition, Display, and Image-Based Lighting, Erik Reinhard, Greg Ward, Paul Debevec, Sumanta Pattanaik, Wolfgang Heidrich and Karol Myszkowski, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2nd edition, 2010.
High Dynamic Range Video, Karol Myszkowski, Rafal Mantiuk and Grzegorz Krawczyk. Synthesis Digital Library of Engineering and Computer Science. Morgan & Claypool Publishers, San Rafael, USA, 2008.
Color Imaging: Fundamentals and Applications Erik Reinhard, Erum Arif Khan, Ahmet Oguz Akyuz and Garrett M. Johnson, A K Peters, 2007.
High Dynamic Range Imaging: an article in Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering 2015

Further literature will be announced during the course.