The Laboratory of Psychophysics has an opening for a collaborative Master project on visual perception with the Laboratory of Perceptual & Cognitive Dynamics of the Ritchie School of Engineering & Computer Science, University of Denver, Denver CO USA.*)
The project will be carried out in Denver under the supervision of Prof. Haluk Ogmen ([email protected]).
1. Learning in real-time dynamic neural-network architectures
Current neural network approaches use systems that are isolated from their environment (inputs and desired outputs are provided by the external system-developer and not discovered and learned autonomously by the neural network itself) and learn invariances passively by being exposed to a very large database. In stark contrast, humans develop and learn through real-time interactions with their environments. The project will consist of designing and implementing neural network architectures that incorporate real-time processing and selection mechanisms by incorporating specialized memory systems (sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory) that interact with each other through attentional and masking processes. The project will involve the design and implementation of neural network architectures that combine these memory, masking, and attentional processes guided by functional properties of human perceptual and cognitive systems.
2. Non-Retinotopic representations in 3D dynamic environments
The optics of the eyes map neighboring points in the environment unto neighboring points on the retina and this topological organization, known as the retinotopic organization, is preserved in early visual areas of the cortex. However, this egocentric representation is transformed into exocentric (non-retinoqtopic) representations that underlie our percepts of the world. In the last decade, extensive research clarified many patio-temporal properties of these non-retinoqtopic representations. However, this work has used relatively simple 2D visual inputs and the results need to be extended to more realistic 3D environments. This project will consist of programming a virtual reality headset (oculus vive) to generate 3D dynamic stimuli to conduct psychophysical experiments targeted at understanding non-retinoqtopic representations for 3D dynamic stimuli.
*) The University of Denver was founded in 1864 and is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It has about 6,000 graduate/professional and 6,000 undergraduate enrollment. The Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science has moved to a brand new 130K sq-ft building with state-of-the-art facilities. The School has about 600 undergraduate and 200 graduate students.