Elsevier

Computers & Graphics

Volume 28, Issue 3, June 2004, Pages 451-456
Computers & Graphics

Education
Visual perception in computer graphics courses

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2004.03.015Get rights and content

Abstract

Visual perception and the human visual system are important for the judgements of the results in computer graphics. So it is important to address this in computer graphics courses. We describe the experiences of including those features into graphics courses and from our experiences we give examples and proposals as to how an introduction to perception can be done. A bibliography with comments is also included in the paper.

Introduction

This paper discusses visual perception in computer graphics education. Related areas are, however, also covered to some extent. Knowledge of the human visual system is vital for the understanding of perception and is therefore treated as being a part of visual perception in this paper.

Perception and the human visual system (HVS) are also important for several areas related to computer graphics. Examples of such areas are visualization, graphics design, human–computer interaction, image processing, and computer vision.

We give a few examples of how perception is treated in education within those areas.

Computer graphics textbooks traditionally usually include at the most some reference to human vision mechanisms when specifically addressing topics where some knowledge of those mechanisms is essential to their understanding [1], [2]. However, the more recent text by Angel [3] includes a brief section on the human visual system in the first chapter.

The book [4] includes a chapter on visualization design with guidelines related to perception. Other examples from visualization are given by Healy et al. [5], which has examined pre-attentive (immediate) detection of patterns in visualization presentations. Visualization textbooks are very rare. An example of such a book, [6], does include very little on HVS. Collections with different papers that might be used for a course do sometimes include perceptual aspects such as [7]. Reports on the activities concerning the identification of a kernel curriculum in visualization do include human perception concepts as an independent topic to be addressed [8], [9], [10].

Human–computer interaction courses sometimes include perceptual aspects and HVS. Of two textbooks on human–computer interaction, one addresses the subject [11] and the other does not [12].

However, computer science is expanding its scope and has changed dramatically in the last decade, which certainly has a significant impact in computing education in general as one can evaluate from Computing Curricula 2001 [13]. This change has conceivably been responsible for a different approach that is already becoming noticeable in several documents about computer graphics education. On the one hand, computer graphics has been recognized as of interest to a wide variety of disciplines beyond computing (e.g. engineering, mathematics, physics, art) [14], on the other hand, it has been considered unlike other specialties in computer science, since it is “visual” [15], [16]. If we look into the current version of the SIGGRAPH Education Committee CGI Taxonomy Project [17], we notice the reference to aspects of the HVS in several sections (human factors, colour perception, Mach bands). Most computer graphics educators agree that, due to its visual nature, computer graphics must not only consider space and time aspects, but also a user's perception of the output in the context of the user's goals [18].

In the following sections, we briefly describe how these aspects have been addressed in computer graphics (as well as in other related) courses. We include a list of commented bibliography that could support these levels.

Section snippets

Motivations for using perception

There are several different reasons for taking into account the perceptual aspects in graphics. Below is a list of questions where perception may contribute to an answer. In the list we have also included aspects within visualization as this is closely related to computer graphics.

  • How can we adjust rendering calculations to make the images more realistic?

  • How can we present information and data in a way that make patterns in the data easier to detect?

  • How can we avoid mistakes in the human

Experiences from two universities

Below is a description of how visual perception and knowledge on HVS have been included in the computer graphics courses at two universities. Experiences are also given.

Bibliography

Brief introductions to visual perception can be found for instance in textbooks of Digital Image Processing and Human–Computer Interaction [11], [23], [24], which are usually easy to find in technological libraries. In this section we give a bibliography of some papers and books on visual perception (and related areas). The references have been structured into three categories: introductory, intermediate and advanced. It should be observed that useful references can be found in many varying

Conclusions

Aspects concerning visual perception and the human visual system are important for computer graphics courses. Computer graphics is related to design and perception, which raises the need for an interdisciplinary attitude. Students are often interested in this broader perspective.

In the future, perceptual aspects will probably be even more important as the fundamental algorithms have been more fully explored.

In this paper we have shown how an introduction to these aspects can be given in a

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