January 2011 Archives

"I received a letter that ends, as far as I am concerned, the discussion about 3D. It doesn't work with our brains and it never will.

The notion that we are asked to pay a premium to witness an inferior and inherently brain-confusing image is outrageous. The case is closed."

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2011/01/post_4.html#more

Based on what we know about depth perception and the brain, do you agree with Roger?

The International Joint Conference on Biometrics (IJCB 11) is a special combination of two major biometrics research conference traditions, the International Conference on Biometrics (ICB) and the Biometrics Theory, Application and Systems (BTAS) conference.

Here are some topics they cover:

Do you tink these topics would be interesting to study? Why?
Which topic would you find the least interesting? Why?

http://www.cse.nd.edu/IJCB_11/

"One problem is that students just aren't asked to do much, according to findings in a new book, "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses." Half of students did not take a single course requiring 20 pages of writing during their prior semester, and one-third did not take a single course requiring even 40 pages of reading per week."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/45-of-students-dont-learn_n_810224.html

How does this relate to what we are trying to accomplish with the hybrid class?

"On Thursday IBM demonstrated Watson, a computer consisting of a roomful of the company's Power7 processors. But the real genius in the system is that it can understand language well enough to figure out the wordplay that makes up a Jeopardy! question. On Feb. 14, 15 and 16 Watson will take on two Jeopardy! champions -- - Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings."

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/100879/20110113/ibm-s-watson-computer-to-play-jeopardy.htm#

(Contributed by Anthony)

Here is a spoof on Watson: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/14/jeopardy-robot-watson_n_823115.html

Please read chapter 4. After reading chapter 4, please respond to the following questions:

What were two things from the chapter that you found interesting? Why were they interesting to you? Which two things did you find the least interesting? Why? What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the visual system? Why? Finally indicate two topics or concepts that you would like me to cover in more depth in class.

Note: Keep in mind that you will be allowed to bring in the blog posts to class with you when you take exams. Be sure to use the terms and terminology in your posts.

Let me know if you have any questions,

--Dr. M 

What I would like you to do is to find a topic from chapter 4 that you were interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. But use at least 3 sources.

Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it. At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.

By now you all should be skilled at synthesizing the topical material you have obtained from the various web sites you visited. If you need a refresher please let me know.

Thanks,

--Dr. M 

Please read chapter 3. After reading chapter 3, please respond to the following questions:

What were two things from the chapter that you found interesting? Why were they interesting to you? Which two things did you find the least interesting? Why? What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the visual system? Why? Finally indicate two topics or concepts that you would like me to cover in more depth in class.

Note: Keep in mind that you will be allowed to bring in the blog posts to class with you when you take exams. Be sure to use the terms and terminology in your posts.

Let me know if you have any questions,

--Dr. M 

What I would like you to do is to find a topic from chapter 3 that you were interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. But use at least 3 sources.

Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it. At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.

By integrating/synthesizing I mean to take what your read/experienced from the internet search (and from chapter 1 if you like) organize the information into the main themes, issues, info, examples, etc. about your topic and then write about the topic in your own words using that information. This is hard for some people to do - many students write what we refer to as "serial abstracts." They are tempted to talk about the websites rather than the topic proper. They will talk all about website #1, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #2, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #3, and then write some kind of conclusion. Serial means one after the other...This what you DON'T want to do!

At first it is a real challenge to get out of the habit of writing "serial abstracts," but I assure you once you get the hang of it it is much easier to write using the integration method. And besides this is the way researchers and scientists write their technical reports and findings - many of you will have to be able to do this for other classes and for jobs that you may eventually be hired for so now is a good time to learn this skill. At this point don't worry about a grade, worry about doing your best to have fun with the topic and then integrate it into your own words to share what you found and now know. We will work on citing the sources later....

Let me know if you have any questions.

Please read chapter 2 (if you don't have a book yet, please let me know). After reading chapter 2, please respond to the following questions:

What were two things from the chapter that you found interesting? Why were they interesting to you? Which two things did you find the least interesting? Why? What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the visual system? Finally indicate two topics or concepts that you would like me to cover in more depth in class.

Note: Keep in mind that you will be allowed to bring in the blog posts to class with you when you take exams. Be sure to use the terms and terminology in your posts.

What I would like you to do is to find a topic from chapter 2 that you were interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. But use at least 3 sources.

Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it. At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.

By integrating/synthesizing I mean to take what your read/experienced from the internet search (and from chapter 1 if you like) organize the information into the main themes, issues, info, examples, etc. about your topic and then write about the topic in your own words using that information. This is hard for some people to do - many students write what we refer to as "serial abstracts." They are tempted to talk about the websites rather than the topic proper. They will talk all about website #1, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #2, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #3, and then write some kind of conclusion. Serial means one after the other...This what you DON'T want to do!

At first it is a real challenge to get out of the habit of writing "serial abstracts," but I assure you once you get the hang of it it is much easier to write using the integration method. And besides this is the way researchers and scientists write their technical reports and findings - many of you will have to be able to do this for other classes and for jobs that you may eventually be hired for so now is a good time to learn this skill. At this point don't worry about a grade, worry about doing your best to have fun with the topic and then integrate it into your own words to share what you found and now know. We will work on citing the sources later....

Let me know if you have any questions.

"DALLAS - A Texas man declared innocent Tuesday after 30 years in prison had at least two chances to make parole and be set free -- if only he would admit he was a sex offender. But Cornelius Dupree Jr. refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery, in the process serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110104/ap_on_re_us/us_dna_exoneration_texas

What do we know about sensation & perception that might help us reduce the number of misidentifications that occur?

(Thanks to Ali for sending the link)