VSS is pleased to announce that the 22nd Annual Visual Demos Evening at VSS will be Monday, May 18, 2026, at the TradeWinds Island Resorts, St. Pete Beach. Demo Night is an informal celebration of the experiential phenomena of vision science, with a diverse offering of visual demos.is the

The Demo Night committee is seeking particularly dramatic, provocative, educational, and entertaining demonstrations of visual phenomena, both new and old. We encourage submissions of large-scale demonstrations that transcend the bounds of the tabletop, such as immersive experiences, and also ones that are “physical” and do not rely on computer graphics.

VSS and the TradeWinds Island Resorts can provide tables, electrical outlets, and some wall space and/or screens for projections and poster boards upon request. The organizers will help coordinate special needs (e.g., theatrical lighting) on a case by case basis. Each presenter will be responsible for bringing and setting up any other necessary equipment for their own demos, including data projectors and other displays.

This year’s Demo Night will be organized and curated by Daw-An Wu, CalTech; Anna Kosovicheva, University of Toronto Mississauga; Peter Kohler, York University; and Gideon Caplovitz, University of Nevada, Reno.

Submission Deadline

Submissions Accepted: February 12, 2026
Submissions Close: March 13, 2026

Please direct any questions to .

Demos: Monday, May 19, 2025, 7:00 – 10:00 pm, Talk Room 1-2

Please join us Monday evening for the 21st VSS 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.

This year’s Demo Night will be organized and curated by Daw-An Wu, Cal-Tech; Peter Kohler, York University; Anna Kosovicheva, University of Toronto Mississauga; and Gideon Caplovitz, University of Nevada, Reno.

Demos are free to view for all registered VSS attendees and their families and guests.

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

The Anne Boleyn Illusion and Other Mirror-Based Bodily Illusions

Grant Fairchild, Zhihan (Hannah) Guo, Stephanie Dietz, Jared Medina, Emory University
The Anne Boleyn Illusion uses a mirror box setup to produce a robust perception of a phantom sixth finger. This illusion and related mirror box illusions show that perception of the body’s location, orientation, and even its organization can be distorted by bottom-up sensory cues, including visuotactile and visuoproprioceptive synchrony.

La Hire Phenomenon: Seeing One’s Own Blind Spots and Retinal Blood Vessels

Charles Wu, Independent Researcher
I will demo the La Hire phenomenon: To see one’s own blind spots as black, white, or colored holes in their visual field. Linking this phenomenon to the neuroanatomical fact that the blind spot is represented in V1-L4, I claim that V1-L4 is the neural substrate for visual sensation.

Beuchet Chair

Tim Andrews, University of York
A Classic illusion setup that shrinks or enlarges the people and objects around the chair. Two parts of the chair, made at very different size scales, are placed at just the right distance to match in the eye. The failure of the visual system’s size constancy causes people to be shrunk or made giants. Explore the space around it, and add your own visual coincidences.

Travelling wave paradoxes

Christopher W. Tyler1, Josh Solomon2, and Stuart Anstis3; 1Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute; 2City St George’s, University of London; 3UC San Diego
Longitudinal wave propagation is a well-known concept in physical acoustics, but unstudied as a perceptual phenomenon (unlike transverse waves, as commonly used for motion perception). Viewed visually, we show that it is strikingly nonlinear, has paradoxical forward and reverse phases that can be attentionally segregated, and generates no motion aftereffect.

Try out a spatio-spectral-temporal light logger

Geoffrey Aguirre, Zachary Kelly, Samantha Montoya, University of Pennsylvania
Try out a compact, all-day light-logger, and share your demo night experience with an audience. Wander the demo hall wearing the unit (which features prescription lenses), and data from the world and pupil camera, mini-spectrometer, and accelerometer will be broadcast to a screen for the audience to see.

Contour Erasure and Filling-in

Yih-Shiuan Lin1, Chien-Chung Chen2; Mark W. Greenlee1, Stuart Anstis3; University of Regensburg; National Taiwan University; 3University of California, San Diego
Here in our demos, you will see several examples of the fascinating contour erasure effect: objects of various shapes and sizes completely disappear into the background or merge together after only a short adaptation period on their contours. We will show you some old and new variations of contour erasure since its discovery.

Additive contrast and motion blur – unique perceptual aspects with Augmented Reality and head-mounted displays

Xiuyun Wu, Saeideh Ghahghaei Nezamabadi, Takahiro Doi, James Wilmott; Meta Platforms, Inc.
Check out the unique perceptual challenges with Augmented Reality and head-mounted displays, regarding how additivity and head movements affect the visual quality of virtual contents! In this demo, we showcase how virtual faces and text look on top of different backgrounds, and how motion blur changes with your head movements.

Eye Duel: Balloon Burst Showdown

Kurt Debono, Marcus Johnson, SR-Research Ltd.
Take on a collaborative eye movement challenge. Experience synchronised tracking of both you and your opponent’s gaze. Inflate your balloon by looking at it and burst it to win. Deflate your opponent’s balloon with your gaze to slow them down.

Celebrity EYE-Q: Holistic face processing in a tabletop game

Didi Dunin, Ben van Buren, The New School
Here we introduce a tabletop card game called Celebrity EYE-Q, in which players guess celebrities from their eyes, and learn about holistic face processing. Players must guess celebrities while viewing their eyes in isolation or held up to other players’ eyes to elicit disruptive processing by surrounding facial features.

Is your central foveal parvo system long wavelength (red) cone dominant or medium wavelength (green) cone dominant?

Lingyu Gan, George Sperling, University of California, Irvine
Traditional methods of determining isoluminance determine only magno isoluminance, which is trivial because the magno system, like the rod system, is monochromatic. We demonstrate unimpaired grating resolution in parvo isoluminance, which can be long wavelength (red) cone dominant, medium wavelength (green) cone dominant, or mixed. The demonstration determines this classification for individual viewers.

Magic Metamers and Saccadic Suppression, Hidden in Plain Sight

Peter April, Jean-Francois Hamelin, Dr. Jonathan Tong, VPixx Technologies
Can visual information be hidden in plain sight? We use the PROPixx multispectral projector to display a secret message hidden in a uniform field using chromatic metamers. Look through a filter to reveal the hidden message! Back by popular demand, the PROPixx 1440Hz projector demonstrates visual processing during saccades. We present a word which is only visible during your saccades. The player with the fastest word sighting wins a drink ticket!

Visual Phenomena from the Journal of Illusion

Arthur G Shapiro1, Stuart Anstis2, Alex Gokan1; 1American University; 2UC San Diego
The Journal of Illusion has been in operation since 2019 with Akiyoshi Kitaoka as founder and editor. Here we will present some phenomena that have been published in JoI since that time, including some illusions from the authors of this demo.

Level Up Your Aim: Feel Your Way to Perfect Shots in VR!

Ailene Chan, Caltech
Tired of missing your shots? We’ve got you covered! Experience an FPS game with unparalleled precision using vibro-tactile feedback. Feel the difference as adaptive haptic feedback sharpens your aim, and compete to top the leaderboard. Perfect your shots – immersion redefined!

A world without color: Monochromatic light room

Helen E. Feibes1, Spencer R. Loggia1,2, Karthik Kasi1; 1National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health; 2Department of Neuroscience, Brown University
We provide an immersive experience of the world without color using monochromatic sodium light (589 nm). The demo highlights the myriad benefits color provides in natural vision. It also showcases a surprising finding: That faces, and only faces, provoke a paradoxical memory color, appearing greenish (Hassantash et al, 2019).

Compete with your colleagues for the focused visual attention prize!

Ian Buscay, Robert Lee, Cambridge Research Systems Ltd.
We will use the Brite functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system and the highly precise Display++ visual display to measure your ability to focus your visual attention in this game of skill. Bring your “A” game (as in Attention), or risk being shown up by your colleagues.

Caricature Effect in Data Visualization

Jeremy Wilmer1, Sarah Kerns2; 1Wellesley College; 2Dartmouth College
A hands-on exploration of a striking phenomenon in data visualization: the Caricature Effect.

The Bar Cross Ellipse Illusion

Gideon Caplovitz, University of Nevada Reno
Use your powers of mentalization to take control over your phenomenological experiences in this dynamic quad-stable stimulus!

Immersive Insights: Integrating eye-tracking and biosensors in XR with SilicoLabs and Brain Vision

Kyla Alsbury-Nealy, SilicoLabs
A physical exploration at the frontier of visual neuroscience research, combining eye-tracking from Pupil Labs and brain signals to create a unique experience. Witness real-time neuro-gaze interactions in an immersive Extended Reality (XR) environment powered by LABO, offering a glimpse into the future of research.

The UW Virtual Brain Project

Melissa Schoenlein1, Ross Treddinick2, Nathaniel Miller3, Chris Racey4, Simon Smith2, Kudirat Alimi2, Yash Sancheti2, Chris Castro5, Bas Rokers6, & Karen B. Schloss2,7 ; 1Department of Psychology, High Point University; 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; 7Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Take a tour through the sensory systems of the human brain in the UW Virtual Brain ProjectTM. The VR lessons provide immersive experiences of information flow from sensory input to cortical processing. Evidence suggests these experiences are fun and easy to use, which can advance neuroscience education.

Strobe Hallucinations: A Window into Altered Visual Perception

Nathan H. Heller, Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research
Open your mind to the wild world of Strobe Hallucinations! This interactive demo uses controlled stroboscopic stimulation to induce dynamic, kaleidoscopic percepts that mimic visual effects experienced during altered states of consciousness. Discover how simple, flickering light can profoundly transform perception and reveal surprising features about the brain’s visual processing mechanisms.

Five Illusions Challenge Our Understanding of Visual Experience

Paul Linton, Columbia University
Try the illusions from my VSS Poster “Experiential3D”: [1]. VISUAL INFERENCE: “Perceived Real-World Depth is Not Inverted in the Hollow Face Illusion” (Linton Un-Hollow Face Illusion). [2]. VISUAL SCALE: “Visual Scale is Governed by Accentuated 3D Shape from Horizontal Disparities” (Linton Scale Illusion). [3]. VISUAL SHAPE: “Perceived Stereo Depth Reflects Retinal Disparities, Not 3D Geometry” (Linton Stereo Illusion). [4]. SIZE CONSTANCY: “Size Constancy Does Not Affect Perceived Angular Size” (Linton Size Constancy Illusion). [5]. COLOR CONSTANCY: “Color Constancy Does Not Affect Perceptual Appearance” (Linton Color Constancy Illusion). For more information, please see https://FiveIllusions.com

Magnetic Sand Illusions: Action Capture

Shinsuke Shimojo, Shengjie Zheng, Eiko Shimojo, Caltech
On top of a dynamic white noise display, move one’s finger/hand. When drawing a letter slowly, it leaves a trace but fades. When the hand moves back and forth on the display, nearby dots seem to follow or be captured by it and follow the hand’s direction. All in these illusions, the display appears as though it is interactive with action.

Me and my Shadow

Stuart Anstis, UC San Diego
Your elongated shadow at sunset is a perfect, vertically-stretched replica of your body. But size- constancy failure makes your shadow’s head look tiny compared with its feet, A long generic shadow is projected from above onto the ground at your feet. You adjust the shadow’s taper until it looks “right”.

Strobo-Pong

VSS Demo Night Staff
Experience the chaos of table tennis under conditions of motion perception breakdown. Recreate a live demo of the classic flash-lag illusion (but please, no smoking). Note for the photosensitive: The room will be illuminated only by a flashing strobe l

Beach BBQ: Monday, May 20, 2024, 6:00 – 8:00 pm, Beachside Sun Decks, limited seating in Banyan Breezeway
Demos: Monday, May 20, 2024, 7:00 – 10:00 pm, Talk Room 1-2

Please join us Monday evening for the 20th 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.

This year’s Demo Night will be organized and curated by Gideon Caplovitz, University of Nevada, Reno; Anna Kosovicheva, University of Toronto Mississauga; Peter Kohler, York University; and Daw-An Wu, Cal-Tech.

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.

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!

VSS is pleased to announce that the 21st Annual Visual Demos Evening at VSS will be Monday, May 19, 2025, at the TradeWinds Island Resorts, St. Pete Beach. Demo Night is an informal celebration of the experiential phenomena of vision science, with a diverse offering of visual demos.

The Demo Night committee is seeking particularly dramatic, provocative, educational, and entertaining demonstrations of visual phenomena, both new and old. We encourage submissions of large-scale demonstrations that transcend the bounds of the tabletop, such as immersive experiences, and also ones that are “physical” and do not rely on computer graphics.

VSS and the TradeWinds Island Resorts can provide tables, electrical outlets, and some wall space and/or screens for projections and poster boards upon request. The organizers will help coordinate special needs (e.g., theatrical lighting) on a case by case basis. Each presenter will be responsible for bringing and setting up any other necessary equipment for their own demos, including data projectors and other displays.

This year’s Demo Night will be organized and curated by Daw-An Wu, Cal-Tech; Anna Kosovicheva, University of Toronto Mississauga; Peter Kohler, York University; and Gideon Caplovitz, University of Nevada, Reno.

Submission Deadline

Submissions Accepted: February 18, 2025
Submissions Close: March 20, 2025 extended

Demo Submissions for VSS 2025 are now closed. Please direct any questions to .

Monday, May 20, 2019, 6:00 – 10:00 pm

Beach BBQ: 6:00 – 8:00 pm, Beachside Sun Decks and limited indoor seating in Banyan Breezeway
Demos: 7:00 – 10:00 pm, Talk Room 1-2, Royal Tern, Snowy Egret, Compass, Spotted Curlew and Jacaranda Hall

Please join us Monday evening for the 17th 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. This year’s Demo Night will be organized and curated by Gideon Caplovitz, University of Nevada, Reno; Karen Schloss, University of Wisconsin; Gennady Erlikhman, University of Nevada, Reno; and Benjamin Wolfe, MIT.

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 Talk Room 1-2, Royal Tern, Snowy Egret, Compass, Spotted Curlew and Jacaranda Hall:

For the Last Time: The Ever-Popular Beuchet Chair

Peter Thompson, Rob Stone, and Tim Andrews, University of York

A favorite at demo Night for many years, the Beuchet chair is back for one last hurrah. The two parts of the chair are at different distances and the visual system fails to apply size constancy appropriately. The result is people can be shrunk or made giants.

Paradoxical impact of memory on color appearance of faces

Rosa Lafer-Sousa, MIT

What is the function of color vision? In this demo we impair retinal mechanisms of color using monochromatic sodium light, and probe memory colors for familiar objects in a naturalistic setting. We showcase a surprising finding: faces, and only faces, provoke a paradoxical memory color, providing evidence that color contributes to face encoding and social communication.

Immersive and long lasting afterimages – experiences of altered self

Daw-An Wu, California Institute of Technology

Dark Adaptation + Bright Flashes = Rod Afterimages!

Shikaku no Mori: gamified vision tests

Kenchi Hosokawa, Kazushi Maruya, and Shin’ya Nishida, NTT Communication Science Laboratories

We gamified several vision tests. Those games can be played in a short time (~ 3 minutes) and with a more entertained way. Test sensitivities are enough to be used as initial screening tests (see pretest data on poster in Sunday Pavilion session). Those games are usable for self-check.

The UW Virtual Brain Project: Exploring the visual and auditory systems in virtual reality

Karen B. Schloss, Chris Racey, Simon Smith, Ross Tredinnick, Nathaniel Miller, Melissa Schoenlein, and Bas Rokers, University of Wisconsin – Madison

The UW Virtual Brain Project allows you to explore the visual system and auditory system in virtual reality. It helps to visualize the flow of information from sensory input to cortex cortical processing. The ultimate aim of the project is to improve neuroscience education by leveraging natural abilities for space-based learning.

Fun with Birefringent Surfaces and Polarized Light

Gideon Caplovitz, University of Nevada Reno

What could possibly go wrong?

Generating hyper-realistic faces for use in vision science experiments

Joshua Peterson, Princeton University; Jordan Suchow, Stevens Institute of Technology; Stefan Uddenberg, Princeton University

Easily alter your photographic appearance in a bunch of interesting ways! We have developed a system to morph any face image along psychologically relevant dimensions using recent advances in deep neural networks (namely GANs).

Hidden in Plain Sight!

Peter April, Jean-Francois Hamelin, Danny Michaud, Sophie Kenny, VPixx Technologies

Can visual information be hidden in plain sight? We use the PROPixx 1440Hz projector, and the TRACKPixx 2kHz eye tracker, to demonstrate images which are invisible until you make a rapid eye movement. We implement retinal stabilization to show other images that fade during fixations. Do your eyes deceive?

The Magical Alberti Frame

Niko Troje and Adam Bebko, York University

Pictures are two things: objects in space and representations of spaces existing elsewhere. In this virtual reality experience, users use a magical frame to capture pictures that momentarily appear identical to the scene they reside in, but when users move, the pictures evoke unexpected and eerie perceptual changes and distortions.

Café-Wall illusion caused by shadows on a surface of three dimensional object

Kazushi Maruya, NTT Communication Science Laboratories; Yuki Fujita, Tokyo University of the Arts; Tomoko Ohtani, Tokyo University of the Arts

Café-Wall illusion is a famous optical illusion that parallel gray lines between displaced rows of black and white squares are appeared to be angled with respect to one another. In this demonstration, we show that the Café-wall pattern can be emerged when shadows are cast by multiple cuboids onto a 3D surface of varying depths.

Foveal Gravity: A Robust Illusion of Color-Location Misbinding

Cristina R. Ceja, Nicole L. Jardine, and Steven L. Franconer, Northwestern University

Here we present a novel, robust color-location misbinding illusion that we call foveal gravity: objects and their features can be perceived accurately, but are often mislocalized to locations closer to fovea under divided attention.

Multi Person VR walking experience with and without accuracy correction

Matthias Pusch and Andy Bell, WorldViz

Consumer VR systems are great fun but they have limited accuracy when it comes to precisely tracking research participants. This demo will allow participants to experience first hand how inaccurate these systems can be in an interactive multi-user setting within a large walkable virtual space.

Impossible Integration of Size and Weight: The Set-Subset Illusion

Isabel Won, Steven Gross, and Chaz Firestone, Johns Hopkins University
Perception can produce experiences that are *impossible*, such as a triangle with three 90° sides, or a circular staircase that ascends in every direction. Are there impossible experiences that we can not only see, but also *feel*? Here, we demonstrate the “Set-Subset Illusion” — whereby a set of objects can, impossibly, feel lighter than a member of that set!

The Illusory and Invisible Audiovisual Rabbit Illusions

Noelle Stiles, University of Southern California; Armand R. Tanguay, Jr., University of Southern California, Caltech; Ishani Ganguly, Caltech; Monica Li, Caltech, University of California, Berkeley; Carmel A. Levitan, Caltech, Occidental College; Yukiyasu Kamitani, Kyoto University; Shinsuke Shimojo, Caltech

Neuroscience often focuses on the prediction of future perception based on prior perception. However, information is also processed postdictively, such that later stimuli impact percepts of prior stimuli. We will demonstrate that audition can postdictively relocate an illusory flash or suppress a real flash in the Illusory and Invisible Audiovisual Rabbit Illusions.

Chopsticks Fusion

Ray Gottlieb, College of Syntonic Optometry

Have you noticed that your normal stereoscopic perception is never as strong as the stark, solid 3-dimensionality that you see in a stereoscope or virtual reality device? Chopstick Fusion is a simple and inexpensive stereo practice that develops spatial volume perception. I’ll bring chopsticks for everyone.

Moiré effects on real object’s appearances

Takahiro Kawabe and Masataka Sawayama, NTT Communication Science Laboratories; Tamio Hoshik, Sojo University

An intriguing moiré effect is demonstrated wherein a real bar object in front of stripe motion on an LCD display apparently deforms or rotates in depth. Changing bar orientation and/or a bar-display distance drastically modulates the appearance. Even invisible stripe motion causes a vivid change in bar appearances.

The motion aftereffect without motion: 1-D, 2-D and 3-D illusory motion from local adaptation to flicker

Mark Georgeson, Aston University, UK

Adapting to a flickering image induces vivid illusory motion on an appropriate stationary test pattern: a motion aftereffect without inducing motion. Motion can be seen in 1-D, 2-D or 3-D, depending on the images chosen, but the basis for the effect is local adaptation to temporal gradients of luminance change.

Monocular rivalry

Leone Burridge

An iphone 5 drawing printed onto paper. The perceived colours fluctuate between blue/yellow and red /green.

A Fast and blurry versus slow and clear: How stationary stimuli modify motion perception

Mark Wexler, Labotatoire Psychologie de la Perception, CNRS & Université Paris Descartes

Why do shooting stars look the way they do? Why do most moving objects look clear, even at saccadic speeds? Are there motion effects waiting to be explored beyond the frequency range of computer monitors? Come and find out!

Thatcherize your face

Andre Gouws, York Neuroimaging Centre, University of York; Peter Thompson, University of York

The Margaret Thatcher illusion is one of the best-loved perceptual phenomena. Here you will have the opportunity to see yourself ‘thatcherized’ in real time and we print you a copy of the image to take away.

The caricature effect in data visualization: typical graphs produce negative learning

Jeremy Wilmer, Wellesley College

Graphs that display summary statistics without underlying distributions (e.g. bar/line/dot graphs with error bars) are commonly assumed to support robust information transfer. We demo an array of such graphs that falsify this assumption by stimulating negative learning relative to baseline in typical viewers.

Look where Simon says without delay

Katia Ripamonti, Cambridge Research Systems; Lloyd Smith, Cortech Solutions

Can you beat the Simon effect using your eye movements? Compete with other players to determine who can look where Simon says without delay. All you need to do is to control your eye movements before they run off. It sounds so simple and yet so difficult!

Illusory color induced by colored apparent-motion in the extreme-periphery

Takashi Suegami, Yamaha Motor Corporation, Caltech; Yusuke Shirai, Toyohashi University of Technology; Sara W. Adams, Caltech; Daw-An J. Wu, Caltech; Mohammad Shehata, Caltech, Toyohashi University of Technology; Shigeki Nakauchi, Toyohashi University of Technology; Shinsuke Shimojo, Caltech, Toyohashi University of Technology

Our new demo will show that foveal/parafoveal color cue with apparent motion can induce illusory color in the extreme-periphery (approx. 70°-90°) where cone cells are less distributed. One can experience, for example, clear red color perception for extreme-peripheral green flash, with isoluminant red cue (or vice versa).

The Magical Misdirection of Attention in Time

Anthony Barnhart, Carthage College

When we think of “misdirection,” we typically think of a magician drawing attention away from a spatial location. However, magicians also misdirect attention in time through the creation of “off-beats,” moments of suppressed attention. The “striking vanish” illusion, where a coin disappears when tapped with a pen, exploits this phenomenon.

How Can (Parts of) Planarians Survive Without their Brains and Eyes? -Hint: Its Extraocular UV-Sensitive System

Kensuke Shimojo, Chandler School; Eiko Shimojo, California Institute of Technology; Daw-An Wu, California Institute of Technology; Armand R. Tanguay, Jr., California Institute of Technology, University of Southern California; Mohammad Shehata, California Institute of Technology; Shinsuki Simojo, California Institute of Technology

Planarian dissected body parts, even with incomplete eyespots, show “light avoiding behavior” long before the complete regrowth of the entire body (including the sensory-motor organs). We will demonstrate this phenomenon live (in Petri dishes) and on video under both no-UV (visible) and UV light stimulation. In a dynamic poster mode, we show some observations addressing whether or not the mechanical stress (dissection) switches dominance between the two vision systems.

The joy of intra-saccadic retinal painting

Richard Schweitzer,  Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Tamara Watson, Western Sydney University; John Watson, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Martin Rolfs, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Is it possible to turn intra-saccadic motion blur – under normal circumstances omitted from conscious perception – into a salient stimulus? With the help of visual persistence, your own eye and/or head movements, and our custom-built setup for high-speed anorthoscopic presentation, you can paint beautiful images and amusing text directly onto your retina.

Build a camera obscura!

Ben Balas, North Dakota State University

Vision begins with the eye, and what better way to understand the eye than to build one? Come make your own camera obscura out of cardboard, tape, and paper, and you can observe basic principles of image formation and pinhole optics.

The Role of Color Filling-in in Natural Images

Christopher Tyler and Josh Solomon, City University of London

We demonstrate that natural images do not look very colorful when their color is restricted to edge transitions. Moreover, purely chromatic images with maximally graded transitions look fully colorful, implying that color filling-in makes no more than a minor contribution to the appearance of extended color regions in natural images.

Chopsticks trick your fingers

Songjoo Oh, Seoul National University

The famous rubber hand illusion is demonstrated by using chopsticks and fingers. A pair of chopsticks simultaneously moves back and forth on your index and middle fingers, respectively. One chopstick is actually touching the middle finger, but the other one is just moving in the air without touching the index finger. If you pay attention only to your index finger, you may erroneously feel the touch come from the index finger, not from the middle finger.

Spinning reflections on depth from spinning reflections

Michael Crognale and Alex Richardson, University of Nevada Reno

A trending novelty toy when spun, induces a striking depth illusion from disparity in specular reflections from point sources. However, “specular” disparity from static curved surfaces is usually discounted or contributes to surface curvature. Motion obscures surface features that compete with depth cues and result in a strong depth illusion.

High Speed Gaze-Contingent Visual Search

Kurt Debono and Dan McEchron, SR Research Ltd

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 the latest high speed monitors make for a compelling challenge.

Interactions between visual movement and position

Stuart Anstis, University of California, San Diego; Sharif Saleki, Dartmouth College; Mart Ozkan, Dartmouth College; Patrick Cavanagh, York University

Movement paths can be distorted when they move across an oblique background grating (the Furrow illusion). These motions, viewed the periphery, can be paradoxically immune to visual crowding. Conversely, moving backgrounds can massively distort static flashed targets altering their perceived size, shape, position and orientation.(flash-grab illusion).

StroboPong

VSS Staff

Back by popular demand. Strobe lights and ping pong!

Monday, May 21, 2018, 6:00 – 10:00 pm

Beach BBQ: 6:00 – 8:00 pm, Beachside Sun Decks
Demos: 7:00 – 10:00 pm, Talk Room 1-2, Royal Tern, Snowy Egret, Compass, Spotted Curlew and Jacaranda Hall

Please join us Monday evening for the 16th 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. This year’s Demo Night will be organized and curated by Gideon Caplovitz, University of Nevada, Reno; Arthur Shapiro, American University; Gennady Erlikhman, University of Nevada, Reno; and Karen Schloss, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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 Talk Room 1-2, Royal Tern, Snowy Egret, Compass, Spotted Curlew and Jacaranda Hall:

Paradoxical memory color for faces

Rosa Lafer-Sousa, MIT; Maryam Hasantash, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences, Iran;  Arash Afraz, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH; Bevil R. Conway, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH and National Eye Institute, NIH

In this demo we use monochromatic sodium light (589 nm), which renders vision objectively achromatic, to elicit memory colors for familiar objects in a naturalistic setting.  The demo showcases a surprising finding, that faces, and only faces, provoke a paradoxical memory color, appearing greenish.

Vision in the extreme periphery:  Perceptual illusions of flicker, selectively rescued by sound

Daw-An Wu, California Institute of Technology; Takashi Suegami, California Institute of Technology and Yamaha Motors Corporation; Shinsuke Shimojo, California Institute of Technology

Synchronously pulsed visual stimuli, when spread across central and peripheral vision, appear to pulse at different rates.  When spread bilaterally into extreme periphery (70˚+), the left and right stimuli can also appear different from each other.  Pulsed sound can cause some or all of the stimuli to become perceptually synchronized.

Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls

Matthew Harrison and Matthew Moroz, University of Nevada Reno

‘High Phi’ in VR, illusory motion jumps are perceived when the random noise texture of a moving 3D tunnel is replaced with new random textures. In 2D, these illusory jumps tend to be perceived in the direction opposite the preceding motion, but in 3D, this is not always the case!

The UW Virtual Brain Project: Exploring the visual system in immersive virtual reality

Chris Racey, Bas Rokers, Nathaniel Miller, Jacqueline Fulvio, Ross Tredinnick, Simon Smith, and Karen B. Schloss, University of Wisconsin – Madison

The UW Virtual Brain Project allows you to explore the visual system in virtual reality. It helps to visualize the flow of information from the eyes to visual cortex. The ultimate aim of the project is to improve neuroscience education by leveraging our natural abilities for space-based learning.

Augmented Reality Art

Jessica Herrington, Australian National University

Art inspired by vision science! Come and explore augmented reality artworks that contain interactive, digital sculptures. Augmented reality artworks will be freely available for download as iPhone apps.

Staircase Gelb effect

Alan Gilchrist, Rutgers University

A black square suspended in midair and illuminated by a spotlight appears white. Now successively lighter squares are added within the spotlight. Each new square appears white and makes the other squares appear to get darker. This demonstrates the highest luminance rule of lightness anchoring and gamut compression.

Hidden in Plain Sight!

Peter April, Jean-Francois Hamelin, Stephanie-Ann Seguin, and Danny Michaud, VPixx Technologies

Can visual information be hidden in plain sight?  We use the PROPixx 1440Hz projector, and the TRACKPixx 2kHz eye tracker, to demonstrate images which are invisible until you make a rapid eye movement.  We implement retinal stabilization to show other images that fade during fixations.  Do your eyes deceive?

Do I know you? Discover your eye gaze strategy for face recognition

Janet Hsiao and Cynthia Chan, University of Hong Kong

At VSS, do you often wonder whether you’ve seen someone before? Are you using good gaze strategies for face recognition? Try our hidden Markov modeling approach (EMHMM; http://visal.cs.cityu.edu.hk/research/emhmm/) to summarize your gaze strategy in terms of personalized regions-of-interest and transition patterns, and quantitatively assess its similarity to commonly used strategies.

Virtual Reality reconstruction of Mondrian’s ‘Salon for Madame B’

Johannes M. Zanker and Jasmina Stevanov, Royal Holloway University of London; Tim Holmes, Tobii Pro Insight

We present the first Virtual Reality realisation of Mondrian’s design for a salon painted in his iconic style which was never realised in his lifetime. Visitors can explore the VR space whilst their eye-movements are tracked allowing the researcher to evaluate possible reasons why Mondrian did not pursue his plan.

Hidden Stereo: Hiding phase-based disparity to present ghost-free 2D images for naked-eye viewers

Shin’ya Nishida, Takahiro Kawabe, and Taiki Fukiage, NTT Communication Science Lab

When a conventional stereoscopic display is viewed without 3D glasses, image ghosts are visible due to the fusion of stereo image pairs including binocular disparities. Hidden Stereo is a method to hide phase-based binocular disparities after image fusion, and to present ghost-free 2D images to viewers without glasses.

Quick estimation of contrast sensitivity function using a tablet device

Kenchi Hosokawa and Kazushi Maruya, NTT Communication Science Laboratories

Contrast sensitivity functions (CSFs) are useful but sometimes impossible in practical uses due to imitations of time. We demonstrate web-based applications to measure CSF in a short time (<3 min) at moderate precisions. Those applications allow collecting CSFs’ data from various types of observers and experimental circumstances.

The optical illusion blocks: Optical illusion patterns in a three dimensional world

Kazushi Maruya, NTT Communication Science Laboratories; Tomoko Ohtani, Tokyo University of the Arts

The optical illusion blocks are a set of toy blocks whose surfaces have particular geometric patterns. When combined, the blocks induce various types of optical illusion such as shape from shading, cafe wall, and subjective contour. With the blocks, observers can learn rules behind the illusions through active viewpoint changes.

Dis-continuous flash suppression

Shao-Min (Sean) Hung, Caltech; Po-Jang (Brown) Hsieh, Duke-NUS Medical School; Shinsuke Shimojo, Caltech

We report a novel variant of continuous flash suppression (CFS): Dis-continuous flash suppression (dCFS) where the suppressor and suppressed are presented intermittently. Our findings suggest approximately two-fold suppression power, as evident by lower breaking rates and longer suppression duration. dCFS thus may be suitable for future investigations of unconscious processing.

Virtual Reality Collaboration with interactive outside-in and tether-less inside-out tracking setup

Matthias Pusch, Dan Tinkham, and Sado Rabaudi, WorldViz

Multiple participants can interact with both local and remote participants in VR – the demo will contain both, outside-in tracking paradigm for some participants, in combo with inside-out integrated tracking for other participants. Importantly, the inside-out system will be entirely tether-less (using so-called consumer backpack VR ) and the user will be free to explore the entire indoor floor plan.

The illusion of floating objects caused by light projection of cast shadow

Takahiro Kawabe, NTT Communication Science Laboratories 

We demonstrate an illusion wherein objects in pictures and drawings apparently float in the air due to the light projection of cast shadow patterns onto them. We also conduct a demonstration of a light projection method making an opaque colored paper appear to be a transparent color film floating in the air.

Extension of phenomenal phenomena toward printed objects

Takahiro Kawabe, NTT Communication Science Laboratories 

We demonstrate that the phenomenal phenomena (Gregory and Heard, 1983) can be extended toward printed objects placed against a background with luminance modulation. In our demo, the audience experiences not only the illusory translation of the printed objects but also their illusory expansion/contraction and rotation.

Stereo Illusions in Augmented Reality

Moqian Tian, Meta Company

Augmented Reality with environmental tracking and real world lighting projection can uncover new perspectives of some classical illusions. We will present Hallow Face Illusion, Necker’s Cube, and Crazy Nuts Illusion in multiple conditions, while observers can interact with the holograms through Meta 2 AR headset.

A Color-Location Misbinding Illusion

Cristina R. Ceja and Steven L. Franconeri, Northwestern University

Illusory conjunctions, formed by misbound features, can be formed when attention is overloaded or diverted (Treisman & Schmidt, 1982). Here we provide the opportunity to experience a new illusory conjunction illusion, using even simpler stimulus displays.

Thatcherize your face

Andre Gouws, York Neuroimaging Centre, University of York; Peter Thompson, University of York

The Margaret Thatcher illusion is one of the best-loved perceptual phenomena. Here you will have the opportunity to see yourself ‘thatcherized’ in real time and we print you a copy of the image to take away.

The Ever-Popular Beuchet Chair

Peter Thompson, Rob Stone and Tim Andrews, University of York

A favorite at demo Night for the past few years, the Beuchet chair is back again. The two parts of the chair are at different distances and the visual system fails to apply size constancy appropriately. The result is people can be shrunk or made giants.

Illusory grating

William F. Broderick, New York University

By windowing a large two-dimensional sinusoidal grating, a perpendicular illusory grating is created. This illusion is quite strong, and depends on the overall size of the image, as well as the relative size of the grating and windows.

Look where Simon says without delay

Katia Ripamont, Cambridge Research Systems; Lloyd Smith, Cortech Solutions

Can you beat the Simon effect using your eye movements? Compete with other players to determine who can look where Simon says without delay. All you need to do is to control your eye movements before they run off. It sounds so simple and yet so difficult!

Chromatic induction from achromatic stimulus

Leone Burridge, Artist/ Medical practitioner in private practice

These are acrylic paintings made with only black and white pigments. On sustained gaze subtle colours become visible.

Grandmother’s neuron

Katerina Malakhova, Pavlov Institute of Physiology

If we could find a grandma cell, what kind of information would this cell code? Artificial neural networks allow us to study l atent representations which activate neurons. I choose a unit with the highest selectivity for grandmother images and visualize a percept which drives this neuron.

Planarian Eyespot(s) – Amazing redundancy in visual-motor behavior

Kensuke Shimojo, Chandler School, Pasadena, CA; Eiko Shimojo, California Institute of Technology

The planarian dissected body parts, even with incomplete eyespots, show ‘light avoiding behavior” long before the completion of the entire body (and sensory-motor organs). We will demonstrate this live (in Petri dishes) and in video.

Real-Life Continuous Flash Suppression – Suppressing the real world from awareness

Uri Korisky, Tel Aviv University

‘Real life CFS’ is a new method for suppressing real life stimuli. Using augmented reality goggles, CFS masks (“mondrians”) are presented to your dominant eye, causing whatever is presented to your non-dominant eye to be suppressed from awareness – even real objects placed in front of you.

The Motion Induced Contour Revisited

Gideon Caplovitz and Gennady Erlkhman, University of Nevada, Reno

As a tribute to Neomi Weisstein (1939-2015) we recreate and introduce some novel variants of the Motion Induced Contour, which was first described in a series of papers published in the 1980’s.

Illusory Apparent Motion

Allison K. Allen, Nicolas Davidenko and Nathan H. Heller, University of California, Santa Cruz

When random textures are presented at a moderate pace, observers report experiencing coherent percepts of apparent motion, which we term Illusory Apparent Motion (IAM). In this demo, we will cue observers to experience different types of motion percepts from random stimuli by using verbal suggestion, action commands, and intentional control.

Illusory color in extreme-periphery

Takashi Suegami, California Institute of Technology and Yamaha Motors Corporation; Daw-An Wu and Shinsuke Shimojo, California Institute of Technology

Our new demo will show that foveal color cue can induce illusory color in extreme-periphery (approx. 70°-90°) where cone cells are less distributed. One can experience, for example, clear red color perception for extreme-peripheral green flash, with isoluminant red foveal pre-cueing (or vice versa).

Silhouette Zoetrope

Christine Veras, University of Texas at Dallas; Gerrit Maus, Nanyang Technological University

A contemporary innovation of the traditional zoetrope, called Silhouette Zoetrope. In this new device, an animation of moving silhouettes is created by sequential cutouts placed outside a rotating empty cylinder, with slits illuminating the cutouts successively from the back. This new device combines motion, mirroring, depth, and size Illusions.

Spinning reflections on depth from spinning reflections

Michael Crognale, University of Nevada, Reno

A trending novelty toy when spun, induces a striking depth illusion from disparity in specular reflections from point sources. However, “specular” disparity from static curved surfaces is usually discounted or contributes to surface curvature. Motion obscures surface features that compete with depth cues and result in a strong depth illusion.

High Speed Gaze-Contingent Visual Search

Kurt Debono and Dan McEchron, SR Research Ltd.

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 the latest high speed monitors make for a compelling challenge.

The photoreceptor refresh rate

Allan Hytowitz, Dyop Vision Associates

A dynamic optotype Dyop (a segmented spinning ring) provides a much more precise, consistent, efficient, and flexible means of measuring acuity. Adjustment of the rotation rate of the segmented ring determined the optimum rate as well as the photoreceptor refresh rate for perceived retrograde motion.

Stereo psychophysics by means of continuous 3D target-tracking in VR

Benjamin T. Backus and James J. Blaha, Vivid Vision Labs, Vivid Vision, Inc.; Lawrence K. Cormack and Kathryn L. Bonnen, University of Texas at Austin

What’s your latency for tracking binocular disparity? Let us cross-correlate your hand motion with our flying bugs to find out.

Motion-based position shifts

Stuart Anstis, University of California, San Diego; Patrick Cavanagh, Glendon College, York University

Motion-based position shifts are awesome!

StroboPong

VSS Staff

Back by popular demand. Strobe lights and ping pong!

Monday, May 22, 2017, 6:00 – 10:00 pm

Beach BBQ: 6:00 – 8:00 pm, Beachside Sun Decks
Demos: 7:00 – 10:00 pm, Talk Room 1-2, Royal Tern, Snowy Egret, Compass, Spotted Curlew and Jacaranda Hall

Please join us Monday evening for the 15th 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. This year’s Demo Night will be organized and curated by Gideon Caplovitz, University of Nevada, Reno; Arthur Shapiro, American University; Gennady Erlikhman, University of Nevada, Reno and Karen Schloss, Brown University.

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 function, beginning at 5:45 adjacent to the Salty’s Tiki Bar.

The following demos will be presented from 7:00 to 10:00 pm, in Talk Room 1-2, Royal Tern, Snowy Egret, Compass, Spotted Curlew and Jacaranda Hall:

Rotating squares look like pincushions

Stuart Anstis, Sae Kaneko, UC San Diego

A square that rotates about its own center appears to be distorted into pincushions with concave sides. This illusory shape changes is caused by a perceived compression along the curved path of motion. Corners stick out furthest from the center of rotation so they get apparently pinched the most.

The Rotating Line

Kyle W. Killebrew, Sungjin Im, Gideon Paul Caplovitz, University of Nevada Reno

If a line changes size at it rotates around its center it will appear to speed up and slow down as a function of its length. Speeding up as the line gets longer and slowing down as it gets shorter. Why can’t the visual system get even this simplest of things right?

Biological Motion

Andre Gouws, Tim Andrews, Rob Stone, University of York

A real-time demonstration of biological motion. Walk, jump, dance in front of the sensor and your actions are turned into a point light display, Using an X-box Kinect sensor and our free software, you can produce this effect for yourself.

Thatcherize your face

Andre Gouws, Peter Thompson, University of York

The Margaret Thatcher illusion is one of the best-loved perceptual phenomena. Here you will have the opportunity to see yourself ‘thatcherized’ in real time and we print you a copy of the image to take away.

The Ever-Popular Beuchet Chair

Peter Thompson, Rob Stone, Tim Andrews, University of York

A favorite at demo Night for the past few years, the Beuchet chair is back with yet another modification. The two parts of the chair are at different distances and the visual system fails to apply size constancy appropriately. The result is people can be shrunk or made giants.

Hemifield-specific camouflage and persistence

Zhiheng Zhou, Lars Strother, University of Nevada Reno

Zhou and Strother (2017) recently reported a new psychophysical method of studying contour visibility under conditions of impending camouflage. Here we show that portions of a single contour or two simultaneously visible contours, one viewed in each hemifield, can succumb to camouflage at different times.

Full immersion in VR with remote interactivity

Matthias Pusch, WorldViz

We will immerse two participants at a time with a high end VR system, and have them experience interactivity with a remote (west coast or Europe) set of participants in the same VR session. What can be observed is the level of natural interaction that evolves. Such co-located and/or remote interactivity is an eye opener for understanding the potential and implication of VR for the future of communication and training.

Audio-Visual Perceptual Illusions: Central/Peripheral Flicker Synchronization by Sound

Shinsuke Shimojo, Caltech, Kensuke Shimojo, St. Mark’s School, and Mohammad Shehata, Caltech

We will demonstrate that simultaneously pulsed circular targets (with a flicker frequency of 4 to 6 Hz), one viewed centrally and the other peripherally, appear to pulse at different rates (likely due to differences in the cone and rod systems), but can be synchronized with a pulsed audio stimulus that captures the visual percept.

Audio-Visual Perceptual Illusions: Expanding/Contracting Double Flash and Spatial Double Flash

Bolton Bailey, Caltech, Noelle R. B. Stiles, University of Southern California and Caltech, Shinsuke Shimojo, Caltech, and Armand R. Tanguay, Jr., University of Southern California and Caltech

At VSS 2016 we demonstrated the “Illusory Rabbit” and “Invisible Rabbit” illusions, both of which indicate that auditory stimuli can capture and modify the perceptual structure of visual stimuli postdictively. This year we will demonstrate two novel variants of the classical double flash illusion, one in which the visual stimulus is a circular contrast gradient that appears to vary dynamically in size, and another in which sequential tones from two separated speakers paired with a single flash induce an illusory flash displaced in the direction of apparent auditory motion.

Virtual Reality Real-time Multiple Object Tracking Psychophysics Platform

Steven Oliveira, Mohammed Islam, Elan Barenholtz, Mike Kleinman, Shannon Whitney, Florida Atlantic University

Experimental platform for immersive multiple object tracking experiment using state-of-the-art virtual reality system. Come enjoy the next generation of psychophysics experiments in a fully immersive 3D environment.

Egocentric and egophobic images

Dejan Todorovic, University of Belgrade, Serbia

Some portraits look (generally) at you from (almost) everywhere – but others never do. Likewise, some depicted roads (practically) always point (by and large) at you – but others never do. Check out how salient these effects are simply by inspecting pairs of identical large images spaced widely apart.

Using Mixed Reality to Study the Freezing Rotation Illusion

Max R. Dürsteler, University Hospital Zurich, Dep. of Neurology

Using a Microsoft Hololens, I demonstrate 3D versions of the “Freezing Rotation Illusion”. When using a back and forth rotating tubular structure surrounding a constantly turning air plane model, the plane is perceived a slowing down, when it co-rotates with its surrounds, speeding up otherwise regardless of the observer’s position.

BrainWalk: Exploring the Virtual Brain in immersive virtual reality

Simon Smith, Bas Rokers, Nathaniel Miller, Ross Tredinnick, Chris Racey, Karen B. Schloss, University of Wisconsin – Madison

We will present a Virtual Brain, which uses immersive virtual reality to visualize the human brain. Wearing an Oculus Rift, you can explore a 3D volumetric brain built from real neuroimaging data. You can also play BrainWalk, a game created to help improve the visual design based on user performance.

Augmented BrainWalk: Hands-on Augmented Reality 3D Brain Exploration

Stefano Baldassi, Moqian Tian , Meta Company; Bas Rokers, Nathaniel Miller, Ross Tredinnick, Chris Racey, Karen Schloss, University of Wisconsin, Madison & Wisconsin Institute for Discovery

We present an Augmented Reality tool that allows users to visualize brain structures in 3D and manipulate them directly. This tool has special advantages in education, in that users can see through the real world, allowing direct teacher-student communication while interacting with the same brain model.

See your own Saccades

Peter April, Jean-Francois Hamelin, Danny Michaud, Stephanie-Ann Seguin, VPixx Technologies

VPixx Technologies presents a series of demonstrations which combine the PROPixx 1440Hz refresh rate visual display, and the TRACKPixx 2kHz eye tracker. See your own saccadic eye movement path plotted directly onto your own retina. Question saccadic suppression by examining objects which are visible only during saccades. See what happens when visual stimuli are stabilized on your retina.

High Speed Gaze-Contingent Visual Search

Kurt Debono, Dan McEchron, SR-Research Ltd

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 the latest high speed monitors make for a compelling challenge.

Eyes Wide Shut Illusion

Shaul Hochstein, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

The “Eyes Wide Shut” illusion uses a curved/enlarging mirror to observe one eye at a time, and then, surprisingly, both eyes together in one integrated view. It demonstrates mirror action, binocular integration, and how prior assumptions determine how very approximate information from the world creates perception.

Visual Attention EEG Challenge

Lloyd Smith, Jakob Thomassen, Cortech Solutions, Inc., Cambridge Research Systems, Ltd.

Take the EEG Frequency Tagging Challenge to see whether you or your colleagues will take home the prize for most robust visual spatial attention as measured in an EEG SSVEP paradigm. Don’t look away, though, because moving your eyes might be cause for disqualification! Find out once and for all who among you is best able to focus visual attention and avoid distractions.

The Box that Defined a Movement

Joshua E Zosky, Michael D. Dodd, University of Nebraska – Lincoln

By surrounding objects (which can be perceived moving leftward or rightward) with a three- dimensional box that has a clear direction of motion, viewers are induced to see a directionally congruent perception of motion. Examples of the phenomenon include: spinning orb, spinning dancer, and The Orb that Destroys Stars.

The size-weight illusion

Cristina de la Malla, Vrije universiteit Amsterdam

A small object feels heavier than a larger object of the same mass. This is known as the size-weight illusion. We will provide the opportunity to experience several variations of the illusion.

The FechDeck: a handtool for exploring psychophysics

James Ferwerda, Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology

The FechDeck is an ordinary deck of playing cards modified to support exploration of psychophysical methods. The deck allows users to conduct threshold experiments using Fechner’s methods of adjustment, limits, and constant stimuli, scaling experiments using Thurstone’s ranking, pair comparison, and category methods, and Stevens’ method of magnitude estimation.

Going to the movies: Immersion, visual awareness, and memory

Matthew Moran, Derek McClellan , Dr. D. Alexander Varakin, Eastern Kentucky University

The observer will view a movie clip through a scaled down detailed replica of a movie theater that served as the experimental condition of the study. An unexpected stimulus will cross the stage area in front of the movie screen at the 6:36 mark.

StroboPong

VSS Staff

Back by popular demand. Strobe lights and ping pong!

Monday, May 9, 2005, 7:00 -9:30 pm, G.WIZ Science Museum

The third annual VSS Demo Night is a social event with a barbecue and refreshments to accompany the presentations of demos. There will be 20 demos presented in a variety of formats from laptop displays to room installations, organized by Richard Brown, San Francisco Exploratorium and Shinsuke Shimojo, California Institute of Technology. These presentations highlight the importance of demonstrations of visual phenomena in vision research and education, and provide a forum for sharing techniques and tips for developing effective demonstrations. In addition, G.WIZ features many interactive exhibits on optics and vision, including a traveling NEI exhibition and exhibits on loan from the Exploratorium, which will also be available to use during this event. There is no additional registration required, just come on over to G.WIZ, and enjoy!

BBQ and sodas are complimentary. Beer and wine: $2. Your first drink is on VSS – pick up your free drink
ticket at the front door.

LITE Vision: An Atlas of Visual Phenomena

Kenneth Brecher
Over 200 visual phenomena, spanning color, motion, depth, lightness and form, are presented on an interactive educational website.

MT Illusory Motion After-Effect

Tuan Cao-Huu
A demonstration and analysis of optical imaging studies of illusory motion after-effects will be presented.

Mach Card With Isoluminant Targets

Alan Gilchrist
A folded Mach card with two apertures, whose perceived shape flips between monocular and binocular viewing, demonstrates 3-D context effects in lightness.

Staircase Gelb Effect

Alan Gilchrist
Black and grey squares suspended in midair and illuminated by a spotlight provide a compelling demonstration of the Gelb Effect in perceived lightness.

The Enigmatic Enigma and Related Phenomena

Kai Hamburger and Simone Gori
New, more impressive variations of Leviant’s Enigma figure (traffic-illusion) and other related phenomena will be presented.

Transq

Thorsten Hansen
Color images resembling a natural spectral distribution of 1/(f^n) are temporally modulated by different noise processes to create appealing color landscapes.

Undefeatable Rock Paper Scissors

John Jacobson
A computer program learns to repeatedly defeat human opponents in Rock Paper Scissors, even though it is seen to move first.

Waving Illusion Produced By The Peripheral Drift Illusion

Akiyoshi Kitaoka
A novel static image provides a really waving appearance, based on the peripheral drift motion illusion.

Physics Education Courseware – Integrating Virtual-Reality-Simulations and Real Experiments

Maria Kozhevnikov
A VR interface is used in conjunction with real experiments in mechanics, in individual and collaborative tasks, to study new approaches in science education.

Change Blindness to Gradual Changes: A New Example

Cedric Laloyaux, Christel Devue, Elodie David and Axel Cleeremans
This new example of change blindness extends previous findings to the psychologically important domain of
emotional facial expressions.

Motion Induction by Walking

Songjoo Oh
Walking disambiguates flickering gratings positioned in ground locations such that the grating appears move
opposite the walker’s direction.

McGill Colour Calibrated Image Database

Adriana Olmos
The McGill Colour Calibrated Image Database will be presented, with some demos showing its use in analyzing the chromatic and luminance channels.

Illusions

Baingio Pinna
Presentation of visual illusions.

Head-mounted VR

Matthias Pusch
Users will walk through a variety of virtual environments and phenomena, among them a virtual city, using an
interactive, immersive, high-resolution VR display.

Pitchroom

Adam Shavit, W. Li & L. Matin
A small pitchroom without a floor will be installed. Rotating it will induce large geometric illusions and errors in manual localization.

Posture-dependent Tilted Room

Shinsuke Shimojo, Noriyuki Tanaka, and Shana Mabari
A new and unique variation of the tilted room will be demonstrated in which the perceived tilt depends critically on the observer’s posture.

Failure of Binocular Noise Cancellation

Bill Simpson
This demonstration shows that binocular combination of contrast does not use an algorithm anything like addition.
Pure First-, Second-, and Third-order Motion

Displays

George Sperling
Examples of stimuli that excite only the first-, only the second-, and only the third-order motion systems will be displayed on a laptop computer screen.

The First Stereoscopic Stimulus Ever Seen

Hadley Tassinari
A point source of light and an aluminum disk recreate Wheatstone’s observation of an illusory tilted line passing through the disk.

“Stereoscopic” Perspective

Christopher Tyler
High-resolution perspective images viewed from their center of projection give a sense of depth as vivid as that obtained from binocular stereopsis.

Monday, May 8, 2006, 6:30 -9:30 pm, G.WIZ Science Museum

Please join us Monday night at the G.WIZ Science Museum for the 4th Annual VSS Demo Night, with a barbecue and beverages to accompany the demonstrations.

Richard O. Brown and Shinsuke Shimojo have curated 20 demonstrations of visual phenomena by VSS members, in a variety of formats and scales, illustrating the important roles demonstrations play in vision research and education. These demonstrations will be distributed throughout G.WIZ, amongst the museum’s existing interactive scientific exhibits, including 30 exhibits on physics and visual perception on loan from the Exploratorium.

No registration required. Wear your VSS badge for entry. Guests and family members of all ages welcome.

Schedule of Events
6:30 – 8:00 pm Complimentary BBQ served on the grass at the back of G.WIZ
6:30 – 8:00 pm Outside bar open – Beer and wine for $3; sodas and water complimentary
7:00 – 9:30 pm Demos open inside G.WIZ
7:00 – 9:30 pm Inside bar open – Beer and wine $3; sodas and water complimentary
8:00 – 9:30 pm Complimentary dessert and coffee served

Demonstration of Cue Recruitment

Benjamin Backus, Qi Haijiang, University of Pennsylvania
When a visual signal is paired with trusted visual cues, it can become a cue itself. This demo illustrates the effect by making the apparent 3D rotation of a Necker cube contingent on stimulus position.

Embodying Bottom-Up Visual Attention in a Robotic Monkey Head

David J. Berg, Lior Elazary, Laurent Itti, University of Southern California
A robotic monkey head with a mounted camera will compute salient/surprising locations in its environment and make combined head/eye movements toward them. The monkey will look around the room at interesting things or people as they pass by. The robot has several controllable facial features which create a more natural and entertaining experience.

Demonstration of Curved Visual Space, and Project LITE Vision Interactive software

Kenneth Brecher, Boston University
Novel anamorphic demos combining art, physics and visual perception to explore the curvature of visual space will be presented. Also, Project LITE – Over 250 visual perception applets.

Strobe Room with Balls and Cell Phones

Richard O. Brown, The Exploratorium
A dark room will be illuminated only by slow (~5Hz) stroboscopic flashes. Experience how difficult it becomes to play a simple game of catch under these conditions. Also, bring your cell phone or other glowing objects for fun with the flash-lag effect.

The Touch of Light

Frank H. Durgin, Swarthmore College
Observer places hand into a box, only to see it replaced, via mirror, with a rubber hand. The rubber hand is “stroked” with a laser-pointer light. Most observers feel thermal or tingly sensations from the light. The sensations are localized to the corresponding surface of their own unseen hand.

The Bicycle Illusion: A True Story of Sidewalk Science

James T. Enns, Michael Dodd, Michael Masson, University of British Columbia
The apparent path of a moving object is influenced by the shape of stationary forms at low levels of acuity. This illusion is dissociated from more familiar illusions of induced motion.

Demo With White Disk and Spotlights

Alan Gilchrist, Rutgers University
A disk of white paper and a projected circle of light on a black background can be indistinguishable, with both appearing as white paper disks. But when the spotlight is moved so as to partially overlap the white paper disk, the percept changes dramatically. One of the two disks appears to be composed of illumination, while the other can continue to appear as white paper. But either disk can appear as the spotlight, and the display is reversible. The true state of affairs can be easily revealed, by various methods, such as waving a hand directly in front of the display, and this typically produces visual surprise in the observer

Breathing Light Illusion and Other New Motion Illusions

Simone Gori, Boston University
The Breathing Light Illusion is a challenge for the constant of size and for the constant of color. The Gori-Hamburger Illusion (Rotating Tilted Lines Illusion) is a static pattern that elicits illusory motion. Moreover, other variations of the previous illusions and different new illusions will be shown during the demo.

Enigmatic Variations of Illusory Streaming Motion

Kai Hamburger, Justus Liebig, University Giessen
Novel variations of streaming motion in static patterns (as observed in Leviant’s Enigma figure) will be presented.

Why Images Look Right When Viewed From the Wrong Place

David Hoffman, Ahna R. Girshick, & Martin S. Banks, University of California Berkeley
When a picture is viewed from the center of projection, the retinal image is the same as that from the original scene. As the picture surface is rotated, the retinal image distorts. When one looks monocularly through a pinhole, objects appear to change shape as the picture-surface slant changes. However, when one views binocularly without an aperture, perceived object shape remains stable.

The Attentional Centrifuge

Alex Holcombe, Patrick Cavanagh, Harvard University
The “attentional centrifuge” separates the human visual computations that occur at a local retinotopic stage from those that occur at more global integration stages. Things that cannot be seen with an alternating non-spinning display suddenly become visible when the centrifuge is activated and global processing stages are activated.

Boolean Nature of Conscious Access

Liqiang Huang, Hal Pashler, Anne Treisman, Princeton University
These are the demos from a paper we are revising for Psychological review. (1) What visual contents can we consciously access at one moment? (2) How can we voluntarily select what to access? Boolean map theory offers a unified interpretation of a wide variety of visual-attention phenomena usually treated in separate literatures.

Luminance Re-Mapping for the Control of Apparent Material

Isamu Motoyoshi, Shin’ya Nishida, NTT Communication Science Labs, Japan
I will present a technique that can dramatically alter the apparent material of object surfaces from glossy opaque ones to translucent, metallic, or even sking-like ones. The method is base on a very simple manipulation of the image histogram.

Monochromacy in Photopic Vision

Ken Nakayama, Harvard University
This exercise in monochromatic vision is designed to stimulate thinking about our color experience which we otherwise take for granted in our usual multi-spectral environment. Method: Sodium lamps, perhaps one of the most common sources of highway and street lighting, is practically monochromatic. We will provide illumination from two street lamps, plus some colored objects, including appetizing foods. VSS members are encouraged to bring in their own colored objects.

Proper-/Reverse-spectives – “Paper-thin reality”

Thomas V. Papathomas, Rutgers University
Hughes’s “reverspectives” are stationary stimuli that appear to move as observers move in front of them. I present an interesting variant: Rotating “proper-/reverse-spectives” are paper-thin non-planar objects that contain both protruding illusory reverspectives, and hollow veridical “properspectives”. They appear to rotate in a direction opposite to the physical rotating direction.

Interactive, Immersive Virtual Reality System Demonstration

Matthias Pusch, Brian Rossini, WorldViz LLC
WorldViz will demonstrate an interactive, immersive virtual reality system that can be viewed through a high-resolution head-mounted display and will be navigated by walking and looking around in a large space, tracking the user with a six degrees of freedom optical/inertial tracking system. Users will experience a variety of virtual environments and phenomena, among them several high-quality architectural models.

Artificial Vision Simulation

George Scarlatis, University of California, Los Angeles
A normal-sighted individual can wear a head-mounted display and have a visual experience similar to that of a blind patient implanted with an epiretinal prosthesis.

Swimmers, Eels and Other Gradient-Gradient Illusions

Arthur Shapiro, Emily Knight, Yehonatan Palmor, Daniel Mancusi, Bucknell University
I will present a number of interactive illusions that have been developed in my lab over the past year. Most of these illusions consist of stationary gradient objects placed in front of a moving gradient background, or moving gradient objects in front of a stationary gradient background. The gradient objects can appear to bob up and down (“swimmers”) or contort in shape (“eels”).

Synchronous and Asynchronous Audiovisual Perception

Yasuto Tanaka, Takeshi Nogai, Shinji Munetsuna, Natunal Institute of Information and Communications Technology
When brief auditory signals precede visual signals, both briefly presented, auditory signals are perceived to come ahead in time. However, when the visual signals precedes the auditory signals, they are perceived to occur simultaneously within a certain time window.

ViperLib – Visual Perception Library

Peter Thompson, University of York
Viperlib is a web-based resource library of images and presentation material illuminating the study of visual perception. All images are given freely by the vision research community and are available for educational, non-profit use only.