Very Computer

I recall seeing a blocky image of Lincoln in an issue of Byte some years
ago, the intent of the article being to report on how little information is
needed to present a recognizable image.

I'm investigating that latter issue now in regard to * images, and
will appreciate anyone responding with anything pertinent.  Research, the
text of that article, etc. will be most helpful.

Thanks.

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Annapolis, MD

Quote:> I recall seeing a blocky image of Lincoln in an issue of Byte some years
> ago, the intent of the article being to report on how little information is
> needed to present a recognizable image.

> I'm investigating that latter issue now in regard to * images, and
> will appreciate anyone responding with anything pertinent.  Research, the
> text of that article, etc. will be most helpful.

I believe that image originated with some research on * recognition
that I first saw published in Scientific American.. It even was used as a
cover image in SciAm, if I recall.. The researchers were even contracted
to use their images in the movie "Westworld"..

Anyway, if you desperately want a copy of the article and associated
images, you can find it in a very good little book of SciAm reprints
called "Image, Object, and Illusion" (I believe SciAm's publisher is
Freeman publishing). There's a lot cool articles in that book, including
the first published research about random-dot stereograms..

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    Charles Eicher

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: I recall seeing a blocky image of Lincoln in an issue of Byte some years
: ago, the intent of the article being to report on how little information is
: needed to present a recognizable image.

Not really an answer to your question, but there is a quite amusing painting
by Salvador Dali based on that image.  It's one of his more famous ones,
and should be pretty easy to find in a library or bookshop.

-Joachim

Actually, the effect of these blocky images demonstrates a more important
aspect of the human visual system. Namely, that we find edges by following
the local edge energy upward in frequency until it dead-ends. If the blocky
images are too close we see just blocks because the block edges dominate
perception. If we stand back or blur the projector etc. we are low-pass filtering
the image. Then our visual system dead-ends on the lower frequency edges
associated with an underlying pattern.

Dali takes this one step further. His painting looks like one thing close
and another thing far because there is structure within the blocks. The
original painting is in the Guggenheim in NY.

--
William C. Snyder
University of California Santa Barbara
CRSEO: Center for Remote Sensing and Environmental Optics