VS298: Natural Scene Statistics

This seminar will examine what is known about the statistical structure of natural visual and auditory scenes, and theories of how sensory coding strategies have been adapted to this structure. Topics include:

• Theories of efficient and robust coding
• ICA and sparse coding
• Energy-based models: 'Product of experts' and 'Fields of experts'
• Learning invariant representations through ‘slow feature analysis’
• Manifold and Lie group models
• Hierarchical models and ‘deep networks’

Instructor: Bruno Olshausen

Enrollment information:

VS 298 (section 4), 2 units
CCN: 66489

Meeting time and place:

Monday 6-8, Evans 560

Schedule:

Date	Topic/Reading	Presenter
Feb. 3	Barlow: Theory of redundancy reduction paper Atick: Theory of whitening <bf /> Field: 1/f^2 power spectrum and sparse coding	Anthony DiFranco, Dylan Paiton, Michael Levy
Feb. 8 (Wed.)	Chapter 4: Aquatic eyes: the evolution of the lens + Fernald paper, Jellyfish papers	Drew
Feb. 16	Chapter 5: Lens eyes on land (hilarious video vestibular-ocular reflex in chickens)	Lucas
Feb. 23	Chapter 6: Mirrors in animals + Wagner et al. article + Macropinna microstoma video	Steve, Asako
Mar. 1	Chapter 7: Apposition compound eyes	Robert
Mar. 8 Note: 4:00	How Eyes Evolved - special topics (public lecture at 12:00 in the Redwood Center)	Ivan Schwab
Mar. 15	'Chick eyes' + Wallman & Winawer article	Chris Wildsoet
Mar. 22	A theory of slit pupils	Marty Banks
Mar. 29	[Spring recess]
Apr. 5	Binocular vision in birds + Martin article + Snyder & Miller article	Bill
Apr. 12	Chapter 8: Superposition eyes + Yack article	Dillon
Apr. 19	Chapter 9: Movements of the eyes + Gilchrist et al. article + Schilstra & van Hateren article	Fernando
Apr. 26	Evolution of visual systems Shimizu & Bowers article + Hanlon article + Kaas article	Dillon, Lucas
May 3	Dog vision Miller & Murphy article + Guo et al. article	Benji