Advances in sensing, signal processing, and computer technology during the past half century have stimulated numerous attempts to design general-purpose ma chines that see. These attempts have met with at best modest success and more typically outright failure. The difficulties encountered in building working com puter vision systems based on state-of-the-art techniques came as a surprise. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the problem is that machine vision sys tems cannot deal with numerous visual tasks that humans perform rapidly and effortlessly. In reaction to this perceived discrepancy in performance, various researchers (notably Marr, 1982) suggested that the design of machine-vision systems should be based on principles drawn from the study of biological systems. This "neuro morphic" or "anthropomorphic" approach has proven fruitful: the use of pyramid (multiresolution) image representation methods in image compression is one ex ample of a successful application based on principles primarily derived from the study of biological vision systems. It is still the case, however, that the perfor of computer vision systems falls far short of that of the natural systems mance they are intended to mimic, suggesting that it is time to look even more closely at the remaining differences between artificial and biological vision systems.

The exponential explosion of images and videos concerns everybody's common life, since this media is now present everywhere and in all human activities. Scientists, artists and engineers, in any field, need to be aware of the basic mechanisms that allow them to understand how images are essentially information carriers. Images bear a strong evocative power because their perception quickly brings into mind a number of related pictorial contents of past experiences and even of abstract concepts like pleasure, attraction or aversion.This book analyzes the visual hints, thanks to which images are generally interpreted, processed and exploited both by humans and computer programs. - Comprehensive introductory text - Introduces the reader to the large world of imagery on which many human activities are based, from politics to entertainment, from technical reports to artistic creations - Provides a unified framework where both biological and artificial vision are discussed through visual cues, through the role of contexts and the available multi-channels to deliver information

This volume contains chapters derived from papers presented at the 3rd Global Conference on Visual Literacies: Exploring Critical Issues held in Oxford, UK, July 14th through the 16th, 2009. The conference brought together a broad range of cultural, artistic and academic participants.

ICPA provides a forum for researchers and academics who share a common interest in ecological psychology to come together, present new research, and foster ideas towards the advancement of the field. This volume is the fourteenth in the Studies in Perception and Action book series, and highlights research presented at the 19th International Conference of Perception and Action (ICPA) in the summer of 2017. Since 1991, this edited book series has appeared in conjunction with the biennial ICPA meeting. The short papers and empirical articles presented in this book represent the contributions of researchers and laboratories from across the globe. The reader will find new, cutting-edge research on a wide variety of topics in perception and action. This volume will especially appeal to those that are interested in James J. Gibson's ecological approach to psychology, as well as, more broadly, students and researchers of visual and haptic perception, perceptual development, human movement dynamics, human factors, and social processes.