Béla Julesz 1357064 213471325 2008-05-19T14:23:45Z Robert P. O'Shea 92466 Tidy prose (mainly to remove "Dr.") '''Béla Julesz''' ([[February 19]], [[1928]]–[[December 31]], [[2003]]) was a visual neuroscientist and experimental psychologist in the fields of [[visual perception | visual]] and auditory [[perception]]. Julesz was the originator of [[random dot stereogram]]s which led to the creation of [[autostereogram]]s. He also was the first to study texture discrimination by constraining second-order statistics. == Biography == Béla Julesz was born in [[Budapest]], [[Hungary]], on [[February 19]], [[1928]]. He immigrated to the United States with his wife Margit after receiving his Ph.D. from the [[Hungarian Academy of Sciences]] in [[1956]]. In [[1956]], Julesz joined the renowned [[Bell Laboratories]], where he headed the Sensory and Perceptual Processes Department (1964-1982), then the Visual Perception Research Department (1983-1989). Much of his research focused on [[physiological psychology]] topics including [[depth perception]] and [[pattern recognition]] within the [[visual system]]. In 1959, Julesz created the [[random-dot stereogram]] using pairs of random dot patterns that were identical except for slight differences in the horizontal position of a subset of dots. When these patters were viewed one to each eye via a [[stereoscope]], the subset of dots appeared to be at a different [[depth perception|depth]] from the remainder. Julesz referred to this, whimsically, as ''cyclopean vision'', after the mythical [[Cyclops]], a creature with a single eye in its forehead instead of the usual two. This was because the shape of the depth area was invisible to either eye separately; it is visible only to the ''cyclopean eye'' of stereoscopic perception that combines the information from the two eyes. Later, [[Chris Tyler]], a former student of Julesz, used the principles of random-dot stereograms to invent [[autostereogram]]s, which create the same effect using a single image instead of two. At [[Rutgers University]] in [[Piscataway, New Jersey]], Julesz started teaching in the [[Psychology]] department after retiring from Bell Labs in 1989. It was there that he established and directed the Laboratory of Vision Research, which was dedicated to investigating mechanisms of [[stereopsis]], [[motion (physics)|motion]], [[binocular vision]], [[texture perception]] and [[attention]]. The lab helped establish [[neuroscience]] as an important field of study at Rutgers. Julesz became [[professor emeritus]] in [[1999]], and remained the director of the lab until his death on [[December 31]], [[2003]]. ==Education== * [[1956]] - Ph.D., [[Hungarian Academy of Sciences]] * [[1950]] - [[Electrical Engineering]], [[Budapest University of Technology and Economics | Technical University]], [[Budapest]] ==Publications == Béla Julesz authored or collaborated on more than 200 publications, including '''[[Foundations of Cyclopean Perception]]''' (1971). This book is often considered a classic of [[psychophysics]] and [[cognitive science]], and has recently been added to the Millennium Project list of the 100 most-influential cognitive science books in the 20th century. Thanks to the dedicated work of editors [http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~papathom/new/home.htm Thomas Papathomas] and [http://www.skidmore.edu/~flip/Site/Julesz/Julesz.html Flip Phillips], this book has been republished and is now available from the MIT press. ==Awards== Julesz was a State of New Jersey Professor who received a variety of awards throughout his illustrious career, including a [[1983]] [[MacArthur Fellowship]] ("genius award") for his work in [[Experimental Psychology]] and [[Artificial Intelligence]]. He was elected to the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] in [[1987]]. ==External links== * [http://www.skidmore.edu/~flip/Site/Julesz/Julesz.html Flip Phillips's website]. This site contains sample stereograms and supplemental images from Julesz's book, Foundations of Cylcopean Vision * http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/zeus/julesz.html * http://ur.rutgers.edu/medrel/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=3697 * http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=423145 [[Category:1928 births|Julesz, Béla]] [[Category:2003 deaths|Julesz, Béla]] [[Category:Hungarian neuroscientists|Julesz, Béla]] [[Category:MacArthur Fellows|Julesz, Béla]] [[Category:Scientists at Bell Labs|Julesz, Béla]]