Humans and other animals see the external world veridically (our perceptions agree with physical and geometrical characteristics of objects "out there"). Despite the fact that vision appears easy and effortless, the problem of producing accurate three-dimensional interpretation of the world based on the information provided by two-dimensional retinal images is computationally difficult. I will discuss the nature of this problem and explain how our visual system deals with it. I will also show results illustrating visual perceptions of our robots.

Zygmunt Pizlo is a professor of Psychological Sciences and of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue. His research concentrates on perception of shapes, but also includes all other aspects of visual perception, as well as motor control and problem solving. In 2008 professor Pizlo published a book on human perception of 3D shapes (MIT Press), which is the first monograph published on this topic. He is an author and co-author of over 100 journal and conference papers.