Pizlo's book makes a convincing case that the perception of shape is in a different category from other topics in the research field of visual perception such as color or motion. His insightful and thorough analysis of previous research on both human and machine vision and his innovative ideas come at an opportune moment. This book is likely to inspire many original studies of shape perception that will advance our knowledge of how we perceive the external world.
David M. Regan, Department of Psychology, York University, and Recipient, Queen Elizabeth II Medal, 2002
The very accessible book is a must-read for those interested in issues of object perception, that is, our ordinary, but highly mystifying, continual visual transformations of 2-D retinal images into, mostly unambiguous, 3-D perceptions of objects. Pizlo carefully traces two centuries of ideas abouthow these transformations might be done, describes the experiments thought at first to support the theory, and then experiments establishing that something is amiss. Having laid doubt on all theories, he ends with his own new, original theory based on figure-ground separation and shape constancy and reports supporting experiments. An important work.
R. Duncan Luce, Distinguished Research Professor of Cognitive Science,University of California, Irvine, and National Medal of Science Recipient, 2003
Zygumunt Pizlo, an original and highly productive scientist, gives us an engaging and valuable book, with numerous virtues, arguing that the question of how we perceive 3D shape is the most important and difficult problem for both perceptual psychology and the science of machine vision. His approach (a new simplicity theory) requires and invites much more research, but he believes it will survive and conquer the central problem faced by psychologists and machine vision scientists. If he is right, the prospects for the next century in both fields are exciting.
Julian Hochberg, Centennial Professor Emeritus, Columbia University
Pizlo's book makes a convincing case that the perception of shape is in a different category from other topics in the research field of visual perception such as color or motion. His insightful and thorough analysis of previous research on both human and machine vision and his innovative ideas come at an opportune moment. This book is likely to inspire many original studies of shape perception that will advance our knowledge of how we perceive the external world.
David Regan, Department of Psychology, York University, and recipient, Queen Elizabeth II Medal, 2002
The very accessible book is a must-read for those interested in issues of object perception, that is, our ordinary, but highly mystifying, continual visual transformations of 2D retinal images into, mostly unambiguous, 3D perceptions of objects. Pizlo carefully traces two centuries of ideas about how these transformations might be done, describes the experiments thought at first to support the theory, and then experiments establishing that something is amiss. Having laid doubt on all theories, he ends with his own new, original theory based on figure-ground separation and shape constancy and reports supporting experiments. An important work.
R. Duncan Luce, Distinguished Research Professor of Cognitive Science, University of California, Irvine, and National Medal of Science Recipient, 2003
This book offers e-Humanities many interesting points of contact and a very promising approach.
Literary and Linguistic Computing
Zygmunt Pizlo, an original and highly productive scientist, gives us an engaging and valuable book, with numerous virtues, arguing that the question of how we perceive 3D shape is the most important and difficult problem for both perceptual psychology and the science of machine vision. His approach (a new simplicity theory) requires and invites much more research, but he believes it will survive and conquer the central problem faced by psychologists and machine vision scientists. If he is right, the prospects for the next century in both fields are exciting.
Julian Hochberg, Centennial Professor Emeritus, Columbia University
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008.
