David Brainard's Home Page

David H. Brainard

Professor and Chair
Department of Psychology
University of Pennsylvania
Suite 302C, 3401Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

brainard@psych.upenn.edu
(215) 573-7579 (voice)
(215) 746-6848 (FAX)

Research Interests

I am interested in human vision, machine vision, and computational modeling of visual processing. My primary research is concerned with how the visual system estimates object properties from the information available in the light signal incident at the eye. To study this general problem, I conduct psychophysical experiments to investigate questions such as how object color appearance is related to object surface properties under a wide range of illumination conditions and how color is used to identify objects. I also formulate computational models of visual processing. In addition, I am interested in developing machine visual systems that can mimic human performance and in understanding the neural mechanisms of vision.

Representative Recent Publications. (See Publications for more, or download CV in PDF Format)

Hillis, J. M. and Brainard D. H. (2007). Distinct mechanisms mediate visual detection and identification. Current Biology, 17, 1714-1719, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2007.09.012. Download PDF. Supplementary Material. Web Supplement.

Brainard, D. H., Longere, P., Delahunt, P. B., Freeman, W. T., Kraft, J. M., and Xiao, B. (2006). Bayesian model of human color constancy. Journal of Vision, 6, 1267-1281, http://journalofvision.org/6/11/10/, doi:10.1167/6.11.10.

Yin, L., Smith, R. G., Sterling, P. and Brainard, D. H. (2006). Chromatic properties of horizontal and ganglion cell responses follow a dual gradient in cone opsin expression. Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 12351-12361, doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1071-06.2006. Download PDF.

Bloj, M., Ripamonti, C., Mitha, K., Hauck, R., Greenwald, S., & Brainard, D. H. (2004). An equivalent illuminant model for the effect of surface slant on perceived lightness. Journal of Vision, 4, 735-746, http://journalofvision.org/4/9/6/, doi:10.1167/4.9.6.

Online Presentations.

Understanding the Appearance of Small Spot Colors. Cambridge Research Systems Lecture, Vision Meeting of the UK Colour Group, January 12, 2006, London. Listen to the talk online.