arXiv subjects

Robert Pepperell

Publications and source records attributed to Robert Pepperell.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Toward Quantifying Ambiguities in Artistic Images

It has long been hypothesized that perceptual ambiguities play an important role in aesthetic experience: a work with some ambiguity engages a viewer more than one that does not. However, current frameworks for testing this theory are limited by the availability of stimuli and data collection methods. This paper presents an approach to measuring the perceptual ambiguity of a collection of images. Crowdworkers are asked to describe image content, after different viewing durations. Experiments are performed using images created with Generative Adversarial Networks, using the Artbreeder website. We show that text processing of viewer responses can provide a fine-grained way to measure and describe image ambiguities.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2020

Vision as an Energy-Driven Process

It is frequently assumed that the fundamental purpose of vision is to extract information from light and process it in the brain in order to gain knowledge about environmental objects. Treating vision as an information-driven process has been fruitful for many areas of vision science. But this approach has inherent limitations and may not be sufficient to explain at the most fundamental level why and how we see. Energy is a prime mover in the evolution and operation of all biological systems, including vision, and early researchers in physiological optics and experimental psychology regarded vision as an energy-driven process. Yet to date there has been little attempt to analyze the fundamentals of vision in energetic terms. This paper is a provisional attempt to sketch an account of the early stages of vision as an energy-driven process. On this account, vision is a form of biological work in which energy from the environment is absorbed and processed by neurobiological systems in order to guide behaviour. Evidence from the evolution and neurobiology of vision is presented in support of this approach. I conclude that treating vision as an energy-driven process can contribute to our understanding of its fundamental nature and operation.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2018

Consciousness as a physical process caused by the organization of energy in the brain

To explain consciousness as a physical process we must acknowledge the role of energy in the brain. Energetic activity is fundamental to all physical processes and causally drives biological behaviour. Recent neuroscientific evidence can be interpreted in a way that suggests consciousness is a product of the organization of energetic activity in the brain. The nature of energy itself, though, remains largely mysterious, and we do not fully understand how it contributes to brain function or consciousness. According to the principle outlined here, energy, along with forces and work, can be described as actualized differences of motion and tension. By observing physical systems, we can infer there is something it is like to undergo actualized difference from the intrinsic perspective of the system. Consciousness occurs because there is something it is like, intrinsically, to undergo a certain organization of actualized differences in the brain.

q-bio.NC↗