15 Comments
- BrandNewDigger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I remember learning in a Psychology course (eek here come the negative diggs from anyone who is a scientologist!) about how our vision works. It was interesting to learn that our eyes pick up certain shapes and lines and then basically our brain fills in the rest. What our eyes see when we look at a face to recognize it is not much. Our brains are like supercomputers on steroids!
- zakkuree, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I'm studying Cognitive Science and we learned a thing or two about vision, perception and what not.
While our brains do "fill in" for things such as our blind spot, that is poor reasoning for how the brain recognizes faces. Suggesting that faces are filled in would also suggest that the brain stores an "image" in memory that can be recalled. This is FAR from how the visual cortex functions. However, you are right in that we have separate cells that respond to individual stimuli like lines of different orientation, gradients, and spatial frequencies. It has even been suggested that the brain contains specialized "face cells" specifically designed for recognition of complex stimuli such as faces.
But current research is suggesting that there are no "face cells" in the brain, and that the way we recognize complex stimuli is actually a result of a synchronization of activity amongst all the various visual cells (line orientation, gradients, etc.). So, when looking at some complex stimulus, the cells that respond simultaneously is understood by the brain to be related to each other and basically remembers these interconnections between the cells. So, the next time those same basic cells fire in unison, the brain knows exactly what it is.
It's hard for me to explain, but I hope you got something out of it. And this article doesn't prove or show anything that we didn't know already (as far as the complexity of our brain goes). - Celeron, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Move along. Nothing to see.
- Burritovision, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I am upset that Britons cannot smile in their passport photos because scanners can't read smiles.
You can't take my smile. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1sex classification pwned :D I always thinking about an image recognition software for those random generated images what you need to fill out to testify u not a machine. It's a problem when I want to create 200 more gmail, hotmail, forum account account etc. so after I wrote this stuf I will sell it for 2 billion euro :P
- rainrunner87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just a thought: What if we actually just used Bayesian probability, or something roughly akin, to teach a computer what points matter and what points don't? You take roughly a thousand pictures of a person's face over the course of a year or two, and then have the computer find maybe a few hundred measurable points. Then you compare the points, and find which ones are mostly the same. Tell the computer to look at those points, and then do the same thing with the next person's pictures. Eventually, you break it down to a smaller group of points, and those are likely indicators in most faces.
By the way: I'm in no position to say this. Just wanted to get that out, before I was accused of having no basis. It's really true. I'm just a guy who likes interesting puzzles. That said, think about what I said for its own merits and flaws. - nullmind, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't know much but I remember reading a study that said someone wore glasses that flipped their vision upside-down. Despite the rough start, after a week the brain started to recognize the vision as right-side-up even though the glasses where still flipping the image. I believe they mentioned damage to the eyes, but the process was reversed when the glasses came off.
I think this link is it: http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/mar97/858984531.Ns.r.html - mofomojo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Our brains is only half computer, to put it simply. We have one part of our brain that solves problems and questions, and the other that identifies and proposes them - instinctively or not. It's called the problem solving process.
Our brain interprets tone and shades as shape, not just of faces, but of all things. It's nothing to complicated or new, we just have a mental image of the high lights and low lights of light burnt into our heads. If I were to paint some luminescent paint across my face randomly and turn off the lights, nobody would be able to recognize me since the way the light comes off of my face ( and my hair and entire head for that matter) changes. It's just curves and shapes that we know and recognize, it's not extraodinarily complicated here. I mean, it's easy to know that this is true - just look at kids' art. They draw heads as circles with smiley faces entirely from their memory of what people look like. And their memory tells them that the head is an empty circle or the eye is a solid point. And the mouth is a curve or a line. A professional artist, however, would observe more closely to the reality of the picture and imitate it a little closer onto paper or canvas.
For happy/sad faces, there are two distinct shapes :) and :(. When you complicate things, we're slower to respond because we need to figure out who that is and we need to take clues from one image and apply it to the other - like clothing, tone of voice, style of hair, etc and see if they compare. Sometimes, believe it or not, we ***** up and think one person is another based on the clues we're given only to realize our wrongings.
*****, people like BrandNewDigger with their thesis, books and courses over complicate the simplest things in life. - bigtech64, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Horizontal lines? You mean, like the horizon, or any body of water? Or flat ground?
- itsthemechanic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0This is very true, and illustrated by the fact what happens when you load up on drugs that temporarily interfere with the way your mind works (eg. LSD). On acid most simpler body functions (walking, talking, etc.) still work fine but when it comes to face recognition you either get false negatives (not recognizing someone you know) or false positives (thinking you know somebody when you really don't).
It's a VERY freaky experience -- try it sometime. :P - lowerlogic, on 10/12/2007, -9/+8In Soviet Russia, the face recognize you!
- WormBoy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2How much ram/ghz would you say we have?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2In Soviet Russia, trait ignores you!
- greatblackowl, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1BrandNewDigger BrandNewDigger BrandNewDigger BrandNewDigger BrandNewDigger BrandNewDigger BrandNewDigger BrandNewDigger BrandNewDigger BrandNewDigger BrandNewDigger BrandNewDigger!!
You don't know the history of supercomputers on steroids. I do
You're glib, BrandNewDigger.


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