A seminar course on "Understanding vision: theory, models, and data", University of Tuebingen, April-July 2020 --- will use remote video conferencing for lectures if necessary.

Please email me ASAP (best no later than one week lecture starts) at li.zhaoping@tuebingen.mpg.de if you are thinking of joining the course (whether for credit or just for auditing), I like to make a mailing list for communications on, e.g., lectures by video conferencing and the selection of topics for the course In addition, if you like to take this course as a student from the University, you can find this course in the ALMA system in the University.

Course abstract: This course is based on the book Understanding vision: theory, models, and data , (see table of contents of the book ). Each week will cover a selected part of the book. Before the class meeting, each student should read this part and write an abstract (due at the beginning of each class) describing a summary of his/her understanding of this part. The abstract should have 300-500 words, and should include at least one question or one comment on the material. During the class meeting, two of the students will give a presentation of the selected part. Students take turns to give the presentations across the weeks of the semester. For parts of the book that include mathematical materials, the presentation should be such that each essential point should be presented in two ways, one mathematically and one intuitively and conceptually, use figures and graphics to illustrate the point whenever it is helpful. There will be class discussions during and after the presentation, guided by the lecturer.

Course grades: click here for detalis

Some video lectures: Here are A few video lectures and a growing playlist on the content of the book.

Course textbook is Understanding vision: theory, models, and data . You can borrow this book from the university library and the GTC library. Since the libraries have only a few copies, I will buy some personal copies of the book for course students to borrow from me during the course, just let me know if you like to borrow. I have negotiated with the publisher for a good discount when purchased through my contact to the publisher. The paperback costs about 29 Euros on amazon, with the discount it is about 20 euros (including shipping). If you like to buy the discounted book through my purchasing orders to the publisher, please let me know through li.zhaoping@tuebingen.mpg.de .

Here is a little intro (adapted from Amazon.com) to the book "Understanding Vision": it explains the computational principles and models of biological visual processing, and in particular, of primate vision. It is written in such a way that vision scientists, unfamiliar with mathematical details, should be able to conceptually follow the theoretical principles and their relationship with physiological, anatomical, and psychological observations, without going through the more mathematical pages. For those with a physical science background, especially those from machine vision, this book serves as an analytical introduction to biological vision. It can be used as a textbook or a reference book in a vision course, or a computational neuroscience course for graduate students or advanced undergraduate students. It is also suitable for self-learning by motivated readers (students and researchers in computational neuroscience, vision science, machine and computer vision, as well as physicists interested in visual processes).

Course pre-requisite: Background knowledge on vision, or if you have no previous knowledge, please read chapter 1 and chapter 2 of the book Understanding vision: theory, models, and data and speak with the lecturer for an OK. Background knowledge about vision science (including neuroscience and psychology of vision) could come from having taken a general course on perception, neuroscience, or sensory systems that includes vision as a topic, or from having taken a specific vision course. Better math skills (statistics, linear algebra, nonlinear dynamics, differential equations) will enable a student to get more from this course. However, with sufficient effort, students with limited math skills have successfully learned from the book in the past.

Schedule: meeting Friday 10 am - 12 noon during the summer semester (April 14-July 25, 2020).

Location: zoom lectures while social distancing still hold, otherwise typically in room 203 of Max Planck Ring 8, in Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics.

Lecturers: Prof. Li Zhaoping (lead lecturer), and likely others of Zhaoping's colleagues.

Preliminary lecture content schedule , here you can see which topics are divided into lecture components.

Course readings, preparation before each lecture:

Before lecture on April 24th, read section 3.1-3.4 of the book.

Before lecture on May 8, read section 3.5 of the book, a quick review section 3.4 would be useful for this reading.