Beach BBQ: Monday, May 16, 2022, 6:00 – 8:00 pm EDT, Beachside Sun Decks, limited seating in Banyan Breezeway
Demos: Monday, May 16, 2022, 7:00 – 10:00 pm EDT, Island Ballroom and Jacaranda Hall

Please join us Monday evening for the 18th Annual VSS Dinner and Demo Night, a spectacular night of imaginative demos solicited from VSS members. The demos highlight the important role of visual displays in vision research and education.

Demos are free to view for all registered VSS attendees and their families and guests. The Beach BBQ is free for attendees, but YOU MUST WEAR YOUR BADGE to receive dinner. Guests and family members must purchase a VSS Friends and Family Pass to attend the Beach BBQ. You can register your guests at any time at the VSS Registration Desk, located in the Grand Palm Colonnade. Guest passes may also be purchased at the BBQ event, beginning at 5:45 pm.

The following demos will be presented from 7:00 to 10:00 pm, in the Island Ballroom and Jacaranda Hall:

A joint attention game using Gazer, a system for web-based eye tracking

Amy vanWell, University of Victoria, Dr. James Tanaka, University of Victoria

At the University of Victoria, we have developed a web-based eye-tracking system to track gaze locations using personal laptop cameras. Come demo our system by playing a joint attention task. Participants will be scored on how quickly they can follow the gaze direction of cartoon eyes, for a prize.

Anisotropy of 3-D Non-Rigidity 

Akihito Maruya, State University of New York, Graduate Center for Vision Research, Qasim Zaidi (State University of New York, Graduate Center for Vision Research)

When two rigidly linked rings rotate horizontally around a vertical axis oblique to both, by manipulating motion-energy responses with random flicker, and feature-tracking with salience of features, we can change the percept from rigid rotation to non-rigid wobbling. However, rotating the image 90o always gives non-rigid percepts indicating motion-mechanism anisotropy.

Artist as Vision Scientist: ‘Brain Lessons’ From The Surreal Art of René François Ghislain Magritte

RUSSELL D HAMER, Florida Atlantic University

Can Visual Art teach us about the Visual Brain? Yes, indeed. This demo is a Safari through the panoply of surprising lessons in two iconic paintings by the Surreal Artist, René  Magritte. Exploration of space/scene construction in both; exploration of the nature of representation and visual experience itself in another!

Contour Erasure Filling-in Effects

Yih-Shiuan Lin, University of Regensburg, Chien-Chung Chen/National Taiwan University; Mark W. Greenlee/University of Regensburg; Stuart Anstis/University of California, San Diego

Here in our demos, you will see several examples of the fascinating contour erasure effect: objects completely disappear into the background or merge together after only a short adaptation period on their contours. We will also demonstrate the application of such effect in our contour adaptation contrast threshold paradigm.

Duchamp-Style Rotoreliefs

Christopher Tyler, Smith-Kettlewell Eye Reearch Institute

One form of Marcel Duchamp’s lesser-known works are his rotoreliefs, that sit faded and static in many modern art museums.  In fact they are designed to be viewed while rotating, when they generate vivid and unexpected forms of dynamic 3D depth structure that tap into unexpected aspects of perceptual processing.

Exploring the Frame Effect

Patrick Cavanagh, Glendon College, Stuart Anstis, UCSD

Probes flashed within a moving frame are dramatically displaced (Özkan et al, PNAS 2021). The effect is much larger than that seen on static or moving probes. Here we show that this frame effect is robust to many variations in its shape and path and type of motion.

Hidden in Plain Sight!

Peter April, VPixx Technologies, Jean-Francois Hamelin, Dr. Lindsey Fraser, Dr. Amanda Estephan (all VPixx Technologies)

Can visual information be hidden in plain sight? We use the PROPixx 1440Hz projector to demonstrate images which are invisible until you make a rapid eye movement. Do your eyes deceive?

High Speed Gaze-Contingent Visual Search

Kurt Debono, SR-Research Ltd, Marcus Johnson

Try to find the target in a visual search array which is continuously being updated based on the location of your gaze. High speed video based eye tracking combined with a high speed monitor make for a compelling challenge.

Mind control in motion perception

Carolin Hübner, Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Martin Rolfs, Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

In an interactive setting you will experience objects moving in ambiguous ways. Using mysterious powers of mind control, the demonstrators will influence your percept or predict what you see. Along the way, you will learn about some of the most secret powers of motion processing.

Mixed Reality Experiences on Magic Leap Device

Jacob Duijnhouwer, Magic Leap, Agostino Gibaldi (Magic Leap)

We will present a Magic Leap augmented reality device with color stereo displays, head tracking, and eye tracking. We will demonstrate the mixed reality experience and vision research possibilities via various sample applications.

Retinal painting using (intra-saccadic) anorthoscopic presentations

Richard Schweitzer, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Tamara Watson (Western Sydney University), John Watson (independent researcher), Martin Rolfs (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Anorthoscopic presentation devices show stimuli in a piecewise manner, as if seen moving through a narrow slit. At extremely high velocities, such presentations appear like brief flashes, but not during saccades: When spread across the retina, they produce well resolvable images that briefly remain visible due to visual persistence!

Saccadic Persistence of Vision

Rolf Nelson, Wheaton College (MA), Elizabeth Shelto, Wheaton College (MA)

A rapid sequential presentation of vertical slices of an image can be shown on an LED strip during a saccade. This image is “painted” on the retina and can be perceived during a saccade, which is atypical, since saccadic suppression typically operates during saccades. In addition to being an interesting demonstration, it also provides a way to understand mechanisms of saccadic suppression and attention.

The Caricature Effect in Graphical Communication

Jeremy Wilmer, Wellesley College, Sarah H. Kerns, Wellesley College

Come participate in a hands-on exploration of a striking phenomenon in graphical communication: the Caricature Effect!

The McGurk effect – When visual and auditory information clash

Jonathon Toft-Nielsen, Intelligent Hearing Systems / JÖRVEC, Özcan Özdamar, University of Miami

Are you more inclined to trust your eyes or your ears?  The McGurk effect is a well know auditory illusion which occurs when we are presented with conflicting audio and visual information.  Experience the illusion yourself in our live demonstration and afterwards you may not believe your ears!

The UW Virtual Brain ProjectTM: Virtual reality exploration of the visual, auditory, and touch systems

Melissa Schoenlein, 1Department of Psychology  2Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nathaniel Miller3, Chris Racey4, Simon Smith2, Ross Treddinick2, Kudirat Alimi2, Chris Castro5, Bas Rokers6, & Karen B. Schloss1,2  1Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison  2Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison  3University of Minnesota Medical School 4Psychology, University of Sussex 5College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison 6Department of Psychology, New York University, Abu Dhabi

Explore the UW Virtual Brain ProjectTM  visual, auditory, and touch system lessons in virtual reality or on a desktop display. Each lesson provides an immersive experience of information flow from sensory input to cortical processing. Evidence suggests these experiences are fun and easy to use, which can advance neuroscience education.

Transparency despite Pattern, Junction, Luminance and Color Incongruity: The Power of Common Fate.

Zhehao Huang, SUNY Optometry, Qasim Zaidi

We show that motion-defined common fate overrides geometric, pattern and color incongruities in transparency perception.  We demonstrate transparency percepts despite the combination of T-junctions and overlaid surfaces with different patterns and colors than surround surfaces.

Video communication through MPdepth

Niko Troje, Centre for Vision Research, York University

Turn directionality back on. Establish true dynamic eye contact. Feel free, to look into her eyes or avoid her gaze. Let your visual system take advantage of the amazing wealth of mutual eye gaze again that thought you had lost over Zoom-ing and Skype-ing. No, you don’t need a headset for that. Check it out.

Visual awareness modulated by edge detector adaptation

Shinsuke Shimojo, California Institute of Technology, Shao Min Hung (California Institute of Technology)

VIsual awareness of an object can be suppressed (ie. made invisible) by adapting to the same-shaped higher-contrast adaptor (Moradi & Shimojo, ’04). A variety of new observations indicate a failure of edge detection, being consistent with the interaction between the boundary and the feature systems.

StroboPong

VSS Staff

Back by popular demand. Strobe lights and ping pong!