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Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality Page
http://www.se.rit.edu/~jrv/research/ar/index.html
This page is a resource for Augmented Reality information. You will find an introduction to augmented reality and links to some augmented reality work on the web.

Levelhead
http://selectparks.net/
http://julianoliver.com/levelhead
http://selectparks.net/~julian/levelhead/install.html
levelHead is known to build on Ubuntu 7.10/7.04 and Debian Etch systems against the following external dependencies. It's adviseable you adhere to these versions if you want to avoid going spontaneously mad:
· cal3d 0.11 https://gna.org/projects/cal3d/
· osgcal 0.1.44 http://download.gna.org/underware/
· openscenegraph 1.2 http://www.openscenegraph.org/projects/osg/wiki/Downloads/PreviousReleases
· gstreamer (any) http://www.gstreamer.net/
· bakefile (any) http://www.bakefile.org/
· ARToolkit 2.72.1 http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/download/
· ARToolkitPlus 2.1.1 http://studierstube.icg.tu-graz.ac.at/handheld_ar/artoolkitplus.php Optional:
· linux-uvc revision 228 http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/
· libwebcam revision 22 http://www.quickcamteam.net/software/libwebcam

HIT Lab
The Human Interface Technology Laboratory New Zealand (HIT Lab NZ) is developing and commercializing technology that improves human computer interaction and by doing so unlocks the power of human intelligence.The HIT Lab NZ conducts research with new emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality, Next Generation Video Conferencing, Immersive Visualization and Perceptual User Interfaces. Interaction Design techniques are used to adapt these technologies to the needs of end users and solve real world problems.

ARToolKit from HIT Lab NZ http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/
Development for the ARToolKit library (originally design by Hirokazu Kato and Mark Billinghurst). It's a low-level AR Library for the tracking and the visual integration of real and virtual content. Widely used internationally by the community (GPL Licence), the software is now available commercially from ARToolWorks.

OSGART From HIT Lab NZ http://www.artoolworks.com/community/osgart/index.html
OSGART is a library that simplifies the development of Augmented Reality or Mixed Reality applications by combining the well-known ARToolKit tracking library with OpenSceneGraph. But rather than acting just as a simple nodekit, the library offers 3 main functionalities: high level integration of video input (video object, shaders), spatial registration (marker-based, multiple trackers), and photometric registration (occlusion, shadow).
With OSGART, users gain the benefit of all the features of OpenSceneGraph (high quality renderer, multiple file type loaders, community nodekits like osgAL, etc.) directly in their augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) or mediated reality applications. As with the standard ARToolKit, the user can thus develop and prototype interactive applications that can use tangible interaction (in C++, Python, Lua, Ruby etc.).

AR-media™ Plugin v1.0 for Google SkecthUp™
With ARplug-in, Google Sketch-Up users are allowed to visualize their 3D models directly in the real physical space which sorrounds them. In a very precise sense, through ARplug-in, Sketch-Up 3D models can be visualized out of the digital workspace directly on users' desktop, by connecting a simple webcam and by printing a suitable code. The Plug-in provides users with an advanced visualization functionality which serves two main purposes:
Study and analize scaled virtual prototypes in real environments
Communicate 3D projects immersively and astonishingly
All you need to make ARplug-in work is a personal computer, a webcam and a printed code attached to the software. For optimal functioning, a Dual-core PC with a standard graphic card for 3D videogames are recommended. The price of a one seat License amounts to 99 eur.

Augmented reality on your desktop, thanks to Sketchup



Augmented Reality is a new technology that is starting to spread. Basically, it consists on mixing 3D model with live footage in real time. This concept has been applied to futuristic interfaces, and it can be very helpful for architects as it allows you to take 3D Models a step further, placed on the real world and show it to your clients.
Thanks to the AR-media Plugin for Sketchup, you can start playing with Augmented Reality. This plugin allows you to place the 3D Model over live video from your webcam, and move it around as you can see on the above video. The plugin calculates the planes on the live footage thanks to a sheet you need to print out, which allows the software to calculate the distance and inclination.

The Birth of Primary Cinema from the Spirit of Sound - Feature Article by Frank Rothkamm

on Furthernoise http://www.furthernoise.org/index.php?url=page.php&ID=273&iss=71
It is about eleven o'clock in the morning in my studio in Los Angeles. I look out the window and stare at the Hollywood sign in the distance. The phone almost never rings. If it does, I pick up and nobody is on the line. After a while my mind drifts and a single thought forms in my head like a mantra:
As the rate of information is increasing, so is its comprehensibility decreasing.
I realize that this is especially true for motion pictures, arguably the first digital art form because they're made of single images floating by at the rate of twenty four frames per second. At this rate however, the perception is one of continuous motion. Because of the high rate of images per second, or, of information given per second, the brain (or let me use a Kantian term: the understanding) can no longer understand or process the single image. The development of the modern cinema in Hollywood has only increased the misunderstanding of the single image by constantly increasing the rate of events per second. When I turn on the TV, a SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon is interrupted by a commercial. The longer the show continues, the more often the commercials are shown. The scenes in these commercials are cut so fast and there are so many images per second that I have no idea of what I'm actually watching and thus, no idea what it is that I'm supposed to buy. I do not try to understand anything anymore, I just sit here and let the events pass by.
My eyes drift back to the Hollywood sign: Motion pictures are based on an illusion.

Video projection tools v2.1

The videoprojection tool was developed during a workshop that Hc Gilje gave for students of scenography, choreography and directing at KHIO in Norway june 2007, and further developed for the workshop he had at the medialab prado in Madrid may 2008 (including some features from the newly released max 5).
The workshops were an introduction to working with video as a tool for creating and transforming spaces: to thinking of video as light, and how you can mask a projection to project on multiple objects and surfaces within the projector´s projection angle and to exploit the depth of field in video projectors.
You can find more here: http://hcgilje.wordpress.com/resources/video-projection-tools/
http://hcgilje.wordpress.com/
http://hcgilje.com

Media-Space Journal Inaugural Issue

http://media-space.org.au/journal/issue1.html
In this inaugural issue of Media-Space Journal, is included ten papers from the 7th International Digital Arts and Culture Conference (perthDAC 2007). Digital Arts and Culture (DAC) is the leading cross-disciplinary research conference series for the analysis of developments in the broad field of digital and new media. In September 2007, DAC was hosted as the key international conference in the public program of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth (BEAP) in Perth, Australia. BEAP showcases and critiques artworks that engage with new and novel technologies. The theme of perthDAC 2007 was The Future of Digital Media Culture.

Disability Aeshetics 3

The Body and Physical Difference: Discourses of Disability in the Humanities (The Body in Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism) by David Mitchell (Editor), Sharon Snyder (Editor)









http://books.google.com/books?id=RvnGW3JConIC&pg=PR2&dq=The+Body+and+Physical+Difference:+Discourses+of+Disability+(The+Body,+In+Theory:+Histories+of+Cultural+Materialism)&hl=el#PPR11,M1


Choreographing Difference: Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance by Ann Cooper Albright










http://books.google.com/books?id=ScYLdumGbvcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Choreographing+Difference:+The+Body+and+Identity+in+Contemporary+Dance&hl=el#PPA64,M1


Meaning in Motion: New Cultural Studies of Dance (Post-Contemporary Interventions) by Jane Desmond (Author)






http://books.google.com/books?id=2fDJtHOuAhAC&pg=RA2-PA379&dq=Choreographing+Difference:+The+Body+and+Identity+in+Contemporary+Dance&hl=el#PPA32,M1

Immersive Sight Within the Third Space: Augmentation and Spatial Interface in exhibition space

by Jeremy Hight
Our field of vision is a continual, multi-tiered number crunching. Bicameral sight is always being processed , interpreted, reacted to, adjusted for focus, comparisons made. It simply is always running as an immersive, multi layered interaction of information and movement in a space.
http://neme.org/main/645/immersive-sight
http://neme.org/main/880/immersive-event-time
http://www.xcp.bfn.org/hight.html

Disability Aesthetics 2

Theology and Down Syndrome










http://books.google.com/books?id=T1WFwF53G3cC&pg=PA416&lpg=PA416&dq=Silvers,+A.++(2002).++The+crooked+timber+of+humanity:++Disability,+ideology+and+the+aesthetic&source=bl&ots=6QmfC-9o-t&sig=aD0SeBx3I1dI8SS4QuhZ8fE5S3U&hl=el&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPA433,M1













Toward an Aesthetics of Blindness: An Interdisciplinary Response to Synge, Yeats and Friel (New Studies in Aesthetics)

Bodily Perception

Richard Schusterman ‘Body Consciousness, A Philosophy of Mindfulness and Somaesthetics’
http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=I-k0wLtuqSoC&dq=Richard+Schusterman+%E2%80%98Body+Consciousness,+A+Philosophy+of+Mindfulness+and+Somaesthetics%E2%80%99&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=1z8CI8Wk5h&sig=-Ics3xP8znEWzeJ2QhDuUFcvwKk&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result

Alva Noë's 'Action in Perception'
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kFKvU2hPhxEC&dq=Alva+No%C3%AB

Leandro Erlich

A master of illusion, Argentinean artist Leandro Erlich has amazed audiences with whimsical installations, sculptures, photographs, and videos for the past decade. His video installation Le Trottoir (The Sidewalk) is one of the highlights of the Chanel Mobile Art exhibition, and his celebrated Swimming Pool installation is currently enchanting visitors at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City. Artkrush editor Paul Laster recently sat down with the globetrotting artist at New York's Gramercy Park Hotel to discuss his past work and his new installation at Prospect.1 New Orleans.

http://www.artkrush.com/mailer/issue96/#interview

http://www.leandroerlich.com/

http://www.galerieperrotin.com/fiche.php?id_pop=100000506&&idart=24&&dossier=Leandro_Erlich&&num=39&&p=2

Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation by Brian Massumi

“If you know where you will end up when you begin, nothing has happened in the meantime” (Massumi 18).
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0822328976
http://notdetroit.wordpress.com/category/parables-for-the-virtual/
http://reviews.media-culture.org.au/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2182
http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=yXUPCX5axbcC&dq=Parables+for+the+Virtual,+Brian+Massumi&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=I7GSuJGvj3&sig=bmJ8h0aJqOLW2QD9e6kf9zfyH_A&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA46,M1

Eye, Brain and Vision

http://hubel.med.harvard.edu/b37.htm
http://www.stereo-club.fr/pages/stereoscope.php (solo in french)
http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit01.htm#other
http://books.google.com/books?id=uBLWIX4U2T8C&pg=PR15&lpg=PR15&dq=mono-stereoscope&source=bl&ots=leckx8h3mQ&sig=E4d4OMnlS60tzVAs2NeMHSbFn_Q&hl=el&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA304,M1
on perspective: http://www.sumscorp.com/perspectiveindex.htm

The Maastricht McLuhan Institute

The Maastricht McLuhan Institute (MMI), European Centre for Digital Culture, Knowledge Organisation and Learning Technology, was officially opened by Dr Eric McLuhan (the son of well-known media theorist Marshall McLuhan) in November, 1998 and began its formal activities in January, 1999 at the Grote Gracht 82 in Maastricht.
The mission of the Maastricht McLuhan Institute (MMI) is to study and develop methods for knowledge organisation and knowledge management in a digital, distributed, multimedia world. These methods will be applied to cultural heritage, the design of learning technologies and new electronic services for business. Research will also explore the implications thereof.

Here you can find all about perspective in many articles wtitten by Dr Kim H. Veltman - Scientific Director and Manager Digital Culture of the instistute.
Download for free two of the forth volumes of his seminal work:
Bibliography of the Literature and Sources of Perspective.
Volume 1. Sources of Perspective
Volume 2. Bibliography of Sources
Volume 3. Literature on Perspective and Appendices
Volume 4. Bibliography of Literature
http://www.mmi.unimaas.nl/people/Veltman/publications.htm#Perspective

Anamorphic parking garage signage...

...is the kind of thing that wins design award...

...but shouldn’t—for several reasons:

(1) Signage in this kind of environment is most useful to those who are in the wrong place and/or on the wrong path; not only does this signage fail to serve them, but it introduces additional ambiguities and disorientation. (2) It assumes clear lines of sight, but they’re likely to be obscured by other traffic. (3) This signage uses color in arbitrary or counterconventional ways: green for “in” contrasted with red for “out” rather than green for “go” and red for “stop” (and for fire equipment), blue for “up” and yellow for “down” (which conflicts with other use of yellow for stop lines, warning on pylons, etc). (4) It obscures practical geometries (for example, tight turns on ramps) and introduces lots of unresolved factors (red lines that run across walkways into the roadway). The whole idea privileges the distracting satisfaction of watching a discombobulated illusion ‘fall into place’ rather than helping to drivers to find their way while watching out for other traffic as it enters and exits at unexpected angles).

from: http://b1ff.org/2008/08/04/187/187/

The Salt Satyagraha by Joseph Delappe

Over the course of 26 days, using a treadmill customized for cyberspace, Joseph Delappe reenacted Mahatma Gandhi's famous 1930 Salt March. The original 240-mile walk was made in protest of the British salt tax; the update of this seminal protest march took place at Eyebeam and in Second Life, the Internet-based virtual world. For this performance, Joseph Delappe walked the entire 240 miles of the original march on a converted treadmill at Eyebeam in New York City and online in Second Life. My steps on the treadmill controlled the forward movement of my avatar, MGandhi Chakrabarti, enabling the live and virtual reenactment of the march.

Realized in several stages, DeLappe's virtual re-creation of The Salt Satyagraha, Mahatma Ghandi's Salt March to Dandi, a journey 240 mileslong, is part installation and part performance art. His historical re-enactment reveals more about how virtual space is navigated from real
space than it explains the politics of Mahatma Ghandi's protest against British salt tax in 1930, utilizing travel in real space, a blog, and images from the journey housed on Flickr.
More of the article:
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=308

view project
http://saltmarchsecondlife.wordpress.com/

On joining a “real” march in NYC…
May 6, 2008 by delappe
Long delayed in writing about my experience on April 6th, 2008, walking in a march in “real life” sponsored by the NYC based “Satya Graha Forum”. The march was the inaugural event of a month of activities surrounding the production of “The Satyagraha”, the Phillip Glass opera from 1977 that was being revived by The Metropolitan Opera here in New York. The march involved starting at any one of four gathering points, walking a few miles and circling Union Square Park with all four groups converging on the Gandhi statue at the Soutwest corner of the park for a rally and speeches.
Keep in mind this was the day after completing the 240 miles of the reenactment in Second Life and on the treadmill - I was tired! All the same, it was quite an amazing experience to break out of my daily regimen of walking at Eyebeam (indoors), sleeping, getting up the next day and walking again. I made my way to Houston and 2nd avenue to gather with my fellow marchers. I immediately found myself feeling very self-conscious and shy in only the way that gathering with a group of complete strangers can do to me. Oddly, this was the complete opposite of my behavior and demeanor within Second Life during the course of the reenactment where I was completely at ease in approaching others in the online space to chat and invite them to be my “friends” and perhaps join me in walking.

more...

In My Language

"The first part is in my "native language," and then the second part provides a translation, or at least an explanation. This is not a look-at-the-autie gawking freakshow as much as it is a statement about what gets considered thought, intelligence, personhood, language, and communication, and what does not."
by Amanda Baggs (or "silentmiaow")

CHArt - Computers and the History of Art

www.chart.ac.uk
CHArt was established in 1985 by art and design historians who happened also to be computer enthusiasts. Initially a forum for the exchange of ideas between people who were using computers in their research, the largely academic membership was soon augmented by members from museums and art galleries, as well as individuals involved in the management of the visual and textual archives and libraries relevant to the subject.

Seeing... Vision and Perception in a Digital Culture
This year's CHArt conference takes seeing as its theme and the associated questions of vision, perception, visibility and invisibility, blindness and insight - all in the context of our contemporary digital culture in which our eyes are assaulted by ever greater amounts of visual stimulus, while we are also increasingly being surveyed, on a continual basis.
What does it mean to see and be seen nowadays? How have advances in neuroscience or developments in technology altered our understanding of vision and perception? What kind of visual spaces do we now inhabit? What new kinds of visual experiences are now available? And what are now lost or no longer possible? How does the increasing digitalisation of media affect the experience of seeing? What and who might be rendered invisible by the processes of digital culture? What are our current digital culture's blindspots? What are its politics of seeing?

Critique of V.S. Ramachandran’s ideas

From: hplambert@hotmail.com

Subject: Re: Synesthesia

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:12:51 +0200

Bonjour, dear Y.........

Bonjour!

- I observe that a lot of messages in the section Synesthesia have no direct relations with the phenomenon of synesthesia but generally speaking with the relations between arts and the new field of neurosciences. I consider that to be very meaningful. The term synesthesia is used more as a metonymy for something much more extensive, which would include neuropsychology, neurobiology, cognitive psychology and what is called neuroesthetics.

- The idea of” that artists and writers are able to explore specific functioning of the cognitive system through their works” has nothing new. It is largely used by Semir Seki in Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain. Oxford University Press: Oxford. (1999).Zeki who coined the term neuro-aesthetics illustrated every specialized cortical era by a painter. Fauvism was supposed to have explored the V4 era, specialized in the colour processing, and kinetic art would correspond to the specialization of V5. In his conference on the “Beautiful”, Jean-Pierre Changeux gives the example of Matisse as a neurophysiologist artist. There is an excellent article called « Art and Neuroscience », written by John Hyman, on line (http://www.interdisciplines.org/artcognition/papers/15 ), from a conference on line about art and cognition organized by ENS/ CNRS/ Institut Jean Nicod in 2005. John Hyman reminds the idea that artists would be neurologists as studying the brain with their own techniques is just a modernized rewriting of Helmhotz’s theory of 1871. According to Helmholtz, artists were explorers of visual system. John Hyman quotes Helmholtz in a text of 1871:

"We must look upon artists as persons whose observation of sensuous impressions is particularly vivid and accurate, and whose memory for these images is particularly true. That which long tradition has handed down to the men most gifted in this respect, and that which they have found by innumerable experiments in the most varied directions, as regards means and methods of representation, forms a series of important and significant facts, which the physiologist, who has here to learn from the artist, cannot afford to neglect. The study of works of art will throw great light on the question as to which elements and relations of our visual impressions are most predominant in determining our conception of what is seen, and what others are of less importance. As far as lies within his power, the artist will seek to foster the former at the cost of the latter."

After this quotation, Hyman comments: “In this passage, Helmholtz combines the idea that artists test and explore the visual system Most visual scientists have abandoned Helmholtz’s theory of vision. They no longer talk about sensuous impressions, or about the unconscious mind interpreting sensuous impressions. Instead, it is generally held that different parts of the brain are simultaneously performing various highly specialized tasks, reacting to form, or to motion, or to colour; and that somehow or other the results of these processes are combined to form a unified visual perception, although nobody is sure yet how this synthesis occurs.”

The article is furthermore a devastating critique of V.S. Ramachandran’s ideas on neuroesthetics.

3 For relations between arts and neurosciences, and especaillya arts and neuropsychology, I would recommend some books or articles:

- Rose, F. C. (Ed.), (2004). Neurology and Arts: Painting, Music, Literature. London: Imperial College Press.

-Bogousslavsky, J., & Boller. F. (Eds.). (2005). Neurological disorders in Famous Artists.

-Basel: Karger AG. Chatterjee, A. (2004). “The neuropsychology of visual artistic production”, Neuropsychologia, (42) 1568-83.

4 Sorry for that, I would indicate some personal papers. But one was done in Leonardo Conference in Prague, called : « neuroaesthtics, neujrological disorders and creativity”, which begins by: « Neurology of the arts or neuroaesthetics is a new branch of neurology especially concerned by neuropsychology of visual artistic production and cerebral localisation of musical perception and musical memory (Seki, 1999; Rose, 2004; Chatterjee, 2004; Bogousslavky & Boller, 2005). Among the different activities the new field of research is gathering, such as study of pictorial representation of neurological symptoms in the art history, diagnosis of artists’neurological diseases, this article will focus on the study of relations between cognitive disabilities for neurological disorders and artistic production by visual artists. Neurological deficits can change the work in content or in style, but can be used also as sources of inspiration, especially in the case of epilepsy and migraine. But some final diagnosis remain controversial as regards for instance the nature of the disease of Ravel, Van Gogh, or Giorgio de Chirico, (Bogousslavky & Boller, 2005) or even De Kooning!. According to Anjan Chatterjee (2004) writing about the breakdown of the visual representations: “The work produced by artists who have suffered from brain damage can contribute to our understanding of these representations“(p.1568) and it is also the opinion of Bogousslavky and Boller (2005): »Among more personal writings:

- Article, « Art et cerveau : vers la neuro-esthétique ? », in « Rencontre », Recherches en esthétique, Revue du C.E.R.E.A.P, n°12, 2006.

Cette revue reliée au Laboratoire d’Esthétique Théorique et Appliquée de l’Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne est dirigée par Dominique Berthet, dans le comité de rédaction : Ernest Breleur et Marc Jimenez. - Colloque MutaMorphosis: Challenging Arts and Sciences, International Conference, Prague. A Leonardo 40th Anniversary celebration, Prague, novembre 2007.

Titre de l’intervention : “Neuroesthetics, Neurological Disorders and Creativity“ (La neuro-esthétique, désordres neurologiques et créativité)- Article en ligne : « Littérature, arts visuels, neuroesthétique », http://www.epistemocritique.org/spip.php?rubrique22

Épistémocritique, revue d’études et de recherches sur les littératures et les savoirs, Université du Québec - Intervention : « Dernières traces : l’ultime possibilité créatrice dans la maladie neurologique », Colloque Voyages Au Noir, organisé par le Centre des cultures et des arts de la Caraïbe et la délégation académique aux arts et à la culture, du vendredi 23 novembre au dimanche 25 novembre 2007, Martinique ( on line in the next months)

5 I am preparing an article for a conference on Besançon on memory at he ed of mars and one of my theme is on what Jonah Lehrer wrote on “Proust as an neuroscientist”.The theme is nothing new as we saw with Zeki and even Lemholtz. And furthermore a lot of authentic scientists have wrotten on relations between Proust and neurosociences. . As early as the 9th of november 1998, a specialist of Proust, Yves Tadié had presented in front of the Académie des Sciences morals et politiques, pusblished in the Revue of the Académie an article about “Proust neurologue”. In his recension for books and articles on it, there were, D.Shacter, Searching for memory, I. Rosenfield, Invention of memory, G. Edelman, Bright air, Bright fire, without speacking of Changeux and Vigouroux. What would be original in what he wrote on the theme should be on the speculative explanation of involuntary memory by prions, - whitout entering in easy commentaries of bizarre errors on Proust’s work. It is why in the article I compare this kind of new scientific fantasies with Narby’s explanation of memories in the nature. The well-know Jeremy Narby’s «hypothesis » in The cosmic snake: DNA and the origins of Knowledge postulates a link between the genetic code and shamanic knowledge, refering to a speculative hypothesis, that of Popp, Gu and Li. about biophotons like cellular language. In both texts, Narby’s and Lehrer’s you have the same importation of highly speculative theories connected to the genetic code to explain memory mechanisms. Of cause, my point of view is not to judge or condemn, but from an anthropological point of view, to describe phenomena of the contemporary imaginary.

Hervé-Pierre Lambert

Institut Nicod. EHESS

Brain cells tied to consciousness reported found

Feb. 19, 2008

Courtesy University of Leicester and World Science staff
In a study billed as an ex­plora­t­ion in­to the realm of “con­scious­ness,” re­search­ers claim to have found brain cells that be­come very busy only when some­thing is con­sciously no­ticed.

Try­ing to un­der­stand what cre­ates con­sciousness—the sense of be­ing alive and aware—is one of the all-time most ex­as­per­at­ing prob­lems in sci­ence. The key stum­bling block: even if one knew every brain mech­an­ism un­der­ly­ing con­scious­ness, there would still be no ap­par­ent way to see or meas­ure the ac­tu­al pro­duc­tion of con­sciou­sness.
Scientists examined cells deep within the temporal lobe, the region colored in yellow in this diagram.
For now, many re­search­ers fig­ure they may as well just do the best they can in un­rav­el­ing those phys­i­cal mech­an­isms. The new stu­dy, led by Rod­ri­go Qui­an Qui­roga of the Uni­ver­s­ity of Leices­ter, U.K., is among those de­signed to at­tack that ques­tion. Vol­un­teers were shown pic­tures on a com­put­er screen very briefly­—for a time just at the edge of be­ing long enough to be no­tice­a­ble. The par­t­ici­pants were asked each time wheth­er they saw the pic­ture or not. Some­times the ex­act same vis­u­al in­put was no­tice­a­ble on one tri­al and not on an­oth­er, for the same per­son, Qui­an Qui­roga said. The re­search­ers ex­am­ined what was hap­pen­ing in the brain dur­ing this. Cer­tain neu­rons, or brain cells, “re­sponded to the con­scious per­cep­tion in an ‘all-or-none’ way,” Qui­an Qui­roga said: they dra­mat­ic­ally changed their rate of fir­ing sig­nals, only when pic­tures were rec­og­nized. These neu­rons were in the me­di­al tem­po­ral lobe, a re­gion deep in­side the brain of­ten as­so­ci­at­ed with mem­o­ry.For ex­am­ple, in one pa­tient, a neu­ron in the hip­pocam­pus—a struc­ture al­so in that area—“fired very strongly to a pic­ture of the pa­tient’s broth­er when rec­og­nized and re­mained com­pletely si­lent when it was not,” Qui­an Qui­roga said. “An­other neu­ron be­haved in the same man­ner with pic­tures of the World Trade Cen­tre.” The vol­un­teers were pa­tients who had to un­dergo ep­i­lep­sy sur­gery.“Based on the fir­ing of these neu­rons it was pos­si­ble to pre­dict far above chance wheth­er a pic­ture was rec­og­nized or not,” Quian Quiroga said. Al­so, “a pic­ture flashed very briefly gen­er­at­ed nearly the same re­spon­se—if rec­og­nized—as when shown for much long­er per­i­ods of time.”The find­ings are to ap­pear this week in the early on­line edi­tion of the re­search jour­nal Pro­ceed­ings of the Na­tio­n­al Aca­de­my of Sci­en­ces.

Po­ten­tial ap­plica­t­ions of the work in­clude the de­vel­op­ment of “neu­ral pros­thet­ic” de­vices to be used by par­a­lysed pa­tients or am­putees, Quian Qui­roga said. A spi­nal in­ju­ry pa­tient, such as the late Chris­to­pher Reeve, can think about reach­ing a cup of tea, but the mus­cles don’t get the or­der. Neu­ral pros­the­ses are de­signed to read these com­mands di­rectly from the brain and trans­mit them to bi­on­ic de­vices such as a robotic arm. The find­ings, Quian Qui­roga said, could al­so have im­plica­t­ions treat­ment of pa­tients with patholo­gies of the hip­po­cam­pal forma­t­ion, such as ep­i­lep­sy, Alzheimer’s dis­ease and schiz­o­phre­nia.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/080219_conscious

Eyes' movements

This Newspaper has already been read. The eyes' movements while reading were recorded, digitalized and then reproduced as a print-out. What emerges is an intimation of something that is actually an invisible process, namely reading; what remains behind is a trace of the intake of information. The result is a daily paper which has already been read - a complete and completely read Frankfurter Allgemeine, as it were. The paper was printed alongside a regular daily Frankfurter Allgemeine an in an identical manner using a rotary printing press. Kindly supported by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, Frankfurter Societätsdruckerei GmbH and Hesse Ministry of Science and Art. (Jochem Hendricks, "Newspaper", 1994)

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