ME290M Expert Systems in Mechanical Engineering Spring 1999, T-Th 12:30-2:00 pm 1165 Etcheverry Hall, Course Control No. 56369 http://best.me.berkeley.edu/~aagogino/me290m/s99

1. Elements of Ocular Neuroanatomy (how the eye is built)
1. The Retina (the neural layer that converts light to nerve signals 10^8 photoreceptors)
2. The Fovea (specialized part of the retina)
3. The Optic Nerve (a huge bottleneck — only 10^6 phone lines out)
4. Retinal processing (something going on in between that tosses 99% of the information)
2. Modulation Transfer (MTF) by the Eye for Spatial Variation (what the eye can see in terms of spatial detail)
1. Contrast Sensitivity Measurement (how we approximate the MTF)
2. Bandpass character of the fovea (the fixating part of the eye likes middle frequencies best)
3. Lowpass character of the periphery (peripheral vision is very different, poorer acuity, larger scale)
4. Acuity: The resolution limit (finest seen detail — relation to photoreceptor dimensions)
5. Hyperacuity (seeing far better than one should)
1. Vernier acuity
2. Bisection acuity
3. Normal Blindness (What the eye cannot see)
1. The blind spot (no vision where the optic nerve leaves the eyeball)
2. Illusions
1. Poggendorf
2. Muller-Lyer
3. Craik-Cornsweet
4. Vision of Low Contrast Signal (how the eye does when things are hard to see)
1. Visual Threshold (an outmoded concept)
2. Human vision as a Bayesian decision device