Natural Image Statistics

Natural Image Statistics PDF Author: Aapo Hyvärinen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1848824912
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
Aims and Scope This book is both an introductory textbook and a research monograph on modeling the statistical structure of natural images. In very simple terms, “natural images” are photographs of the typical environment where we live. In this book, their statistical structure is described using a number of statistical models whose parameters are estimated from image samples. Our main motivation for exploring natural image statistics is computational m- eling of biological visual systems. A theoretical framework which is gaining more and more support considers the properties of the visual system to be re?ections of the statistical structure of natural images because of evolutionary adaptation processes. Another motivation for natural image statistics research is in computer science and engineering, where it helps in development of better image processing and computer vision methods. While research on natural image statistics has been growing rapidly since the mid-1990s, no attempt has been made to cover the ?eld in a single book, providing a uni?ed view of the different models and approaches. This book attempts to do just that. Furthermore, our aim is to provide an accessible introduction to the ?eld for students in related disciplines.

Nature Exposed

Nature Exposed PDF Author: Jennifer Tucker
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421413213
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
In Nature Exposed, Jennifer Tucker studies the intersecting trajectories of photography and modern science in late Victorian Britain. She examines the role of photograph as witness in scientific investigation and explores the interplay between photography and scientific authority. Almost immediately after the invention of photography in 1839, photographs were characterized as offering objective access to reality—unmediated by human agency, political ties, or philosophy. This mechanical objectivity supposedly eliminated judgment and interpretation in reporting and picturing scientific results. But photography is a labor-intensive process that allows for, and sometimes requires, manipulation. In the late nineteenth century, the nature of this new technology sparked a complex debate about scientific practices and the value of the photographic images in the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge. Recovering the controversies and commentary surrounding the early creation of scientific photography and drawing on a wide range of new sources and critical theories, Tucker establishes a greater understanding of the rich visual culture of Victorian science and alternative forms of knowledge, including psychical research.

The Distortion of Nature's Image

The Distortion of Nature's Image PDF Author: Damian Gerber
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 1438473559
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Illustrates how the notion of an ecological society remains a decisively political question. The global ecological crisis is upon us. From global warming to the long-term implications of ocean acidification, air and water pollution, deforestation, and the omnipresent dangers of nuclear technology the future of our planetary home is threatened. Yet in the midst of the unfolding crisis, the conventional ideologies of the twentieth century and their representations of nature remain unchallenged by both the defenders of capitalism and capitalism’s most radical critics. The Distortion of Nature’s Image illustrates how the anti-naturalism of late capitalist society, in which nature is reified into the emptiness of mere matter, simply a thing to be dominated, is subtly complemented by the failure of the Left to go both beyond the historic limitations of Marx’s nineteenth-century viewpoint and beyond anarchism’s blind faith in “natural law.” However, an alternative for comprehending nature and the ecological crisis as historical and socialphenomena remains open in the dialectical naturalism of Western Marxism and Murray Bookchin’s social ecology. By examining in closer detail how Bookchin’s social ecology politicizes the concept of nature, as well as how precursory models in Western Marxist thought provide a foundation for this, Damian Gerber illustrates how the notion of an ecological society remains a decisively political question. “There are very few studies that bring anarchism into conversation with an ecological focus. Gerber’s book does this in extraordinary form, offering a critical but balanced overview.” — Simon Springer, author of The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Toward Spatial Emancipation

Natural Image Statistics

Natural Image Statistics PDF Author: Aapo Hyvärinen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1848824912
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 450

Get Book Here

Book Description
Aims and Scope This book is both an introductory textbook and a research monograph on modeling the statistical structure of natural images. In very simple terms, “natural images” are photographs of the typical environment where we live. In this book, their statistical structure is described using a number of statistical models whose parameters are estimated from image samples. Our main motivation for exploring natural image statistics is computational m- eling of biological visual systems. A theoretical framework which is gaining more and more support considers the properties of the visual system to be re?ections of the statistical structure of natural images because of evolutionary adaptation processes. Another motivation for natural image statistics research is in computer science and engineering, where it helps in development of better image processing and computer vision methods. While research on natural image statistics has been growing rapidly since the mid-1990s, no attempt has been made to cover the ?eld in a single book, providing a uni?ed view of the different models and approaches. This book attempts to do just that. Furthermore, our aim is to provide an accessible introduction to the ?eld for students in related disciplines.

Nature Through Microscope & Camera

Nature Through Microscope & Camera PDF Author: Richard Kerr
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biology
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description


The Nature of Photographs

The Nature of Photographs PDF Author: Stephen Shore
Publisher: Phaidon Press
ISBN: 9780714859040
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
The Nature of Photographs is an essential primer of how to look at and understand photographs, by one of the world's most influential photographers, Stephen Shore. In this book, Shore explores ways of understanding photographs from all periods and all types - from iconic images to found photographs, from negatives to digital files. This books serves as an indispensable tool for students, teachers and everyone who wants to take better pictures or learn to look at them in a more informed way.

The Ideal of Nature

The Ideal of Nature PDF Author: Gregory E. Kaebnick
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421400707
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
In this provocative anthology, scholars consider the meaning and merits of “nature” in debates about biotechnology and the environment. Drawing on philosophy, religion, and political science, this book asks what the term “nature” means, how it should be considered, and if it is—even in part—a social construct. The contributors question if the quality of being “natural” is intrinsically valuable. They also discuss whether appeals to nature can and should affect public policy and, if so, whether they are moral trump cards or should instead be weighed against other concerns. Though consensus on these questions remains elusive, this should not be an obstacle to moving the debate forward. By bringing together disparate approaches to addressing these concepts, The Ideal of Nature suggests the possibility of intermediate positions that move beyond the usual full-throated defense and blanket dismissal found in much of the debate. Scholars of bioethics, environmental philosophy, religious studies, sociology, public policy, and political theory will find much merit in this book’s lively discussion.

The Pencil of Nature

The Pencil of Nature PDF Author: William Henry Fox Talbot
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Pencil of Nature" by William Henry Fox Talbot. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Political Economy, Race, and the Image of Nature in the United States, 1825–1878

Political Economy, Race, and the Image of Nature in the United States, 1825–1878 PDF Author: Evan Robert Neely
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040025803
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Political Economy, Race, and the Image of Nature in the United States, 1825–1878 is an interdisciplinary work analyzing the historical origins of a dominant concept of Nature in the culture of the United States during the period of its expansion across the continent. Chapters analyze the ways in which “Nature” became a discursive site where theories of race and belonging, adaptation and environment, and the uses of literary and pictorial representation were being renegotiated, forming the basis for an ideal of the human and the nonhuman world that is still with us. Through an interdisciplinary approach involving the fields of visual culture, political economy, histories of racial identity, and ecocritical studies, the book examines the work of seminal figures in a variety of literary and artistic disciplines and puts the visual culture of the United States at the center of intellectual trends that have enormous implications for contemporary cultural practice. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture, American studies, environmental studies/ecocriticism, critical race theory, and semiotics.

Eliot Porter

Eliot Porter PDF Author: Paul Martineau
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 1606061194
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Known for his exquisite images of birds and landscape, Eliot Porter (American, 1901–1990) was a pioneer in the use of color photography. His work also became a powerful visual argument for environmental conservation. Trained as a medical doctor and possessing a scientist's gift for close observation, Porter explored new ways of depicting nature, building blinds in trees so he could study his avian subjects at closer vantage, and producing landscape images that capture both pristine forest and ragged river canyons with equal force and brilliance. Initially encouraged by the groundbreaking photographers Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz, Porter went on to produce a body of work all his own. His 1962 Sierra Club book In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World, with its images grouped by season and accompanied by quotations from Henry David Thoreau, transformed the concept of nature photography books. Ultimately, Porter's photographs came to the attention of Congress and led to the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, the foundational law in wilderness management today. Eliot Porter: In the Realm of Nature contains 110 images from the collections of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser; the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; and of the J. Paul Getty Museum, along with an essay by Paul Martineau that discusses Porter's life and the innovations he brought to the practice of photography.

The physics of the developed photographic image

The physics of the developed photographic image PDF Author: Frank Elmore Ross
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description