The symmetry of our universe has long been a topic of fascination in science, art and architecture, and obviously plays a paramount role in the environment that humans have constructed for themselves. Despite a good selection of books on the physics and biology of symmetry, the topic of how humans perceive symmetry has been neglected until now.
This book is designed to redress this situation by bringing together a collection of 22 penetrating chapters spanning the range of issues in human symmetry perception and how the tool of computer vision can be brought to bear in its analysis.
The first chapter by the editor provides an illustrated overview of the evolution and significance of the human perception of symmetry, containing many original insights. There is a synopsis of the past century of research into this fascinating field and a selection of up-to-the minute articles on specific topics that will convey the reader to the frontiers of the field. In particular, computer simulations and mathematical models provide the means for understanding the brain processing that underlies the long-ranged connections required for us to perceive the entire scope of symmetry matches that crowd our visual environment.
This book will appeal as much to the computer scientist developing physical models of pattern processing as to the neuroscientist interested in how the brain performs these remarkable feats.
