Structural Information Theory: The Simplicity of Visual Form

This is an excellent, well written book which I highly recommend to readers interested in perception and who want to understand what Structural Information Theory has to say about it. Also those who are looking for an in depth and up to date complete reference on SIT will find this book valuable. SIT explains on a computational level the way that the human visual system organizes raw visual stimulus into a structural model of a scene or distal stimulus. This is a very important book in light of the questions of perception that have been a great mystery for centuries (ie The Allegory of the Cave). This book is well organized with a clear presentation of the problems motivating perception research and clearly defining the purpose of the book and SIT itself. Don't expect any extended explanations involving neurons or brain maps, this book is about the theory at the computational level, in reference to Marr's Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information three levels of description. The material is somewhat difficult and abstract, this is not a casual read. My experience with the book is that the explanations are as clear as could be expected given the abstract nature of the material, however I found it well worth working through the chapters to eventually gain an understanding of how SIT explains the computational solution to perception. In my opinion SIT is a very viable theory, and offers a very convincing core explanation: that the unconscious process which determines structure from visual stimuli works by way of seeking the simplest structure, even though its not always the correct structure (hence visual illusions).

This is an excellent, well written book which I highly recommend to readers interested in perception and who want to understand what Structural Information Theory has to say about it. Also those who are looking for an in depth and up to date complete reference on SIT will find this book valuable.SIT explains on a computational level the way that the human visual system organizes raw visual stimulus into a structural model of a scene or distal stimulus. This is a very important book in light of the questions of perception that have been a great mystery for centuries (ie The Allegory of the Cave). This book is well organized with a clear presentation of the problems motivating perception research and clearly defining the purpose of the book and SIT itself. Don't expect any extended explanations involving neurons or brain maps, this book is about the theory at the computational level, in reference to Marr's