Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov, PH.D.
Moscow State University; Moscow, USSR 1979;
Research is primarily concerned with fundamental aspects of perception (such as the structure of perceived space and time, subjective distances among stimuli) and performance (such as the principal structure of response time). The research also includes the areas of abstract psychophysics, psychometrics, and theory of measurement.

Zygmunt Pizlo, Ph.D.
(Electronics), Warsaw (Poland), 1982; Ph.D., (Psychology) Maryland, 1991;
Professor Pizlo is studying mechanisms of visual perception and cognition. Research topics include shape and color constancy, depth and space perception, figure-ground segregation, and problem solving. The main goal of his research is to understand the relationships between the mathematical as well as physical properties of the environment and the properties of the percept. This kind of approach is called outer psychophysics. Results of psychophysical experiments lead to models that are implemented in a form of computer algorithms. These models are then tested with respect to their psychological plausibility and computational efficiency. The main properties of the architecture and functioning of the models are derived from what is known about the anatomy and physiology of the human visual system.

Richard J. Schweickert, Ph.D.
Michigan, 1979;
Mathematical and Computational Cognitive Science, Research is concerned with information processing, short-term memory, and human factors. The ultimate goal is to be able to give an account of how a subject spends the time between seeing a stimulus and making a response. How much of the time is used for, say, perception? Can some other mental activities go on while perception is occurring? If so, how could we find out which ones they are? Or, if several processes have to go on one at a time, what determines their order of execution? Ideas are drawn from the mathematical theory of scheduling, as applied in particular to the scheduling of jobs on computers.

The following faculty carry out research or teach classes on topics closely related to Mathematical and Computational Cognitive Science.

Greg Francis, Ph.D.
Boston University, 1993;
Primary interests involve computational modeling of perceptual and cognitive systems with neural networks. Recent research has linked the temporal properties of a neural network model for visual perception with psychophysical data on dynamic human vision. Other work investigates the computational properties of neural networks.

Carolyn M. Jagacinski, Ph.D.
Michigan, 1978;
General research interests include achievement motivation, behavioral decision making, and the career development of women in science. Achievement motivation studies have focused on the effects of task- and ego-involving situations on performance, persistence, and intrinsic task interest. More recent work also examines the interactive effects of individual differences in task and ego orientations and situational variables on motivation. Current research in decision making concerns how individuals make evaluations when important information is missing. The influence of the decision context on missing information policies is also being investigated.

Jan P. Allebach, Ph.D.
Research Interests:

• Electronic Imaging Systems
• Image Capture and Rendering
• Color Image Processing
• Image Quality, Document Imaging, Image Databases
  

Hong Z. Tan   
Why I Work on Haptic Interfaces
Of the five major human senses of vision, audition, taction (touch and proprioception), olfaction and gustation, only the first three have been engaged in most human-machine interface research. Of these three, a disproportional majority of work has been conducted on visual and auditory systems. Historically, work on tactile displays have been motivated by the desire to develop sensory-substitution systems for the visually or hearing impaired. The importance of vision and audition is implied by the need to replace them with other sensory modalities when they cease to function well. The existence of a more or less intact tactual sensory system is often taken for granted.

One way to appreciate our tactual sensory system is to consider what happens if it is impaired. Although clinical occurrences of such cases are rare (how many of us have ever met a deafferented person?), deafferented individuals suffer serious consequences from loss of peripheral organs (due to lack of protective sensory inputs) to being completely wheelchair bound. After all, the skin is the largest organ on the human body. Without its proper functions, we cannot gracefully perform even the simplest task of picking up an object. This last point is demonstrated by the fact that in the absence of any contact sensors, visually guided robotic fingers either crush or drop delicate objects such as glasses or eggs.

It is time that we develop human-machine interfaces that engage our sense of touch, and build robots and objects with "touchy feelings".