Consumer Credit in the Affluent Society

This thesis is a proof-of-concept project that aims at modify and reuse existing communication protocols of wireless vehicle to vehicle communication in order to build a prototype of a real time graphical application that runs in an embedded environment. The application is a 2D visualization of the flow of material at a quarry and is built on top of existing communication protocols that enable wireless vehicle to vehicle communication according to the 802.11p standard for intelligent transport solutions. These communication protocols have already been used within the Volvo group in other research rojects, but not in a context of a real-time graphical 2D visualization. The application runs on an ALIX embedded motherboard and combined with the necessary hardware represent one node that makes the communication network. The visualization monitors the position of every active node in the network and the flow of material between material locations and crusher that process the material at the quarry. The visualization is implemented in C/C++ using Qt 4.6.2 Graphics View framework

The Wandering Circles: A Flicker-Rate and Contour Dependent Motion Illusion

Our understanding of the visual system can be informed by examining errors in perception. In this vein, we present a novel illusion that we call the Wandering Circles in which stationary circles undergoing contrast polarity reversals (i.e., flicker), when viewed peripherally, appear to move about in a random fashion. Here we report the results of two psychophysical experiments in which participants rated the strength of the perceived illusory motion under varying stimulus conditions. The illusory motion percept was strongest when there was a light/dark alternation at the circle’s edge and when the edge faded smoothly to the background gray (i.e., a circular arrangement of the Craik-O’Brien-Cornsweet Illusion). Additionally, the percept of illusory motion is flicker-rate dependent, appearing when the circles flickered at 9.44Hz and 28.33Hz, and was virtually non-existent at 1.98Hz. The Wandering Circles differ from many other classic motion illusions as the light/dark alternation is perfectly balanced in time and position around the edges of the circle, and thus, there is no net directional local or global motion energy in the stimulus. Furthermore, the direction of the illusory motion does not seem to be in a particular direction. Thus, it appears that the perceived motion may rely on factors internal to the viewer such as top-down influences, asymmetries in luminance and motion perception across the retina, adaptation combined with positional uncertainty due to peripheral viewing, eye movements, and/or low contrast edges

Object-Based Attention

There appear to be three independent systems for allocating attention: space-based, feature based, and object-based. Here, we review the literature of object-based attention to determine its underlying mechanisms. First, findings from unconscious priming and cuing suggest that the pre-attentive targets of object-based attention can be fully developed object representations. Next, the control of object-based attention appears to come from ventral visual areas specialized in object analysis that project downward to early visual areas. Whether feedback from object areas can accurately target the object’s specific locations and features is controversial, but recent work in autoencoding has made this plausible. Finally, we suggest that the three classic modes of attention may not be as independent as is commonly considered, and instead could rely on object-based attention for all three modes of selection. Specifically, studies show that attention can spread over the separated members of a group – without affecting the space between them — matching the defining property of feature-based attention. At the same time, object-based attention directed to a single small item has the properties of space-based attention. Nevertheless, the evidence for a parallel, space-based selection controlled through saccade centers is also convincing. We outline the architecture for this combined system and discuss how it works in parallel with other attention pathways