Expert Viewers Research Articles

Eye Motion Tracking for Medical Image Interpretation Training.

The significance of Eye Motion Tracking in aiding learners in training search patterns, pattern recognition, and efficiently using their gaze in terms of time and scanning distribution has been highlighted in the USAF Pilot Training Next initiative. The innovation described further builds on this concept in the realm of medical imaging and the provision of real-time feedback of eye direction and gaze duration. This real-time indicator enables the trainer to adapt verbal queueing of the trainee in a personalized manner to improve knowledge transfer, and to increase the confidence of the trainer and trainee in the competency of the trainee. The initial experiment data set included bone radiographs, digital subtraction angiograms, and computed tomography images. Preliminary results and formative feedback from participants was encouraging with expert viewers able to use Eye Motion Tracking to successfully guide novice readers through search and gaze protocol patterns of the medical images.

Face Down: Analysis of the Reception of the Tv Series "Normal People" Among Millennials in Serbia and Conceptualization of the Sudden Error in Research

The TV series Normal People (2020) is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by the young Irish writer Sally Rooney. The book achieved tremendous popularity, particularly among younger audiences – so-called millennials – and the TV series only added new layers of popularity and identification. The success of both of these works can be explained by the skillful way in which Rooney has managed to link and intertwine the romance between the protagonists with the social context in which it is set, thus depicting the generational experience of growing up with the consequences of ay social and economic crisis. This is something that young people could identify with, not only in Ireland but also in other societies affected by the economic crisis which began in 2008, and to which many new crises have since been added (the latest one being the health crisis due to the pandemic), while many earlier ones still reverberate in people’s experiences. Seeking to examine how the globally broadcast TV series Normal People has resonated with the local reception context and viewers’ experiences, in this paper I focus on the aspect of reception of this series by its audience in Serbia, aiming to shed light on the dimension of "viewer enjoyment" in viewing practice and to address the question of the importance of this aspect of "watching TV" for the understanding of the meaning and social impact of television texts. It turned out that the initial idea of collecting material for analysis through an open invitation to participate in online research, with an essay response to the question about the reasons why they enjoyed watching the show (or not), was flawed, as the response rate was lower than expected, which resulted in the empirical "thinning" of the research, but also provided an opportunity to consider some of the problems in qualitative (online) research on contemporary issues and media texts. Exploring these methodological and epistemological problems unexpectedly became an important part of the paper, alongside the research results. The research itself pointed to a new type of viewer, namely, expert viewers, who have become experts through being active in complex technological environments in which they watch TV content, and which they use to inform themselves about it. In addition, the results indicate that the practice of bingeing, linked to the intensification of enjoyment and identification of female viewers, is very widespread. Finally, the most important themes mentioned in their comments were the themes of gender relations/sexuality and the questions of class and social inequality, along with mental health. A "symptomatic reading" of the comments of Normal People’s female viewers in Serbia reveals shared concerns and anxieties in dealing with a rapidly changing world, which is constantly being faced with crises – past ones, current ones, those that have just subsided or those that are yet to come, creating a new sense of "collective fragility", individual, economic or political.

Heuristic Vetoing: Top-Down Influences of the Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic Can Override the Bottom-Up Information in Visual Images.

When making decisions under uncertainty, human subjects do not always act as rational decision makers, but often resort to one or more mental “shortcuts”, or heuristics, to arrive at a decision. How do such “top-down” processes affect real-world decisions that must take into account empirical, “bottom-up” sensory evidence? Here we use recognition of camouflaged objects by expert viewers as an exemplar case to demonstrate that the effect of heuristics can be so strong as to override the empirical evidence in favor of heuristic information, even though the latter is random. We provided the viewers a random number that we told them was the estimate of a drone reconnaissance system of the probability that the visual image they were about to see contained a camouflaged target. We then showed them the image. We found that the subjects’ own estimates of the probability of the target in the image reflected the random information they were provided, and ignored the actual evidence in the image. However, when the heuristic information was not provided, the same subjects were highly successful in finding the target in the same set of images, indicating that the effect was solely attributable to the availability of heuristic information. Two additional experiments confirmed that this effect was not idiosyncratic to camouflage images, visual search task, or the subjects’ prior training or expertise. Together, these results demonstrate a novel aspect of the interaction between heuristics and sensory information during real-world decision making, where the former can be strong enough to veto the latter. This ‘heuristic vetoing’ is distinct from the vetoing of sensory information that occurs in certain visual illusions.

Ultrahigh-Definition Production Codecs - The Agony of Choice

<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Video production equipment uses different codecs and settings to balance competing requirements, such as trading off between bitrate and quality. The introduction of ultrahigh-definition television (UHDTV) and high dynamic range (HDR) adds to the number of codec implementations, making codec choices harder. To help their members evaluate the visual quality of new video production codecs, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT) have organized expert viewings of the latest production codecs. Based on the plans revealed at International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) 2019, more than 200 possible codec configurations were identified. After a voting round by broadcasters, more than 40 of these configurations were selected for actual testing. The focus was on real-world products, not laboratory prototypes. Seven generations were encoded for each configuration. The peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of all sequences was calculated. Subsequently, the first, fourth, and seventh generation of each sequence was scored by expert viewers. The results indicate, that overall, the tested codec configurations perform well up to the seventh generation. For some of the algorithms, a small quality degradation was seen in noise behavior and spatial resolution but no difference in dynamic range was noticeable. There is a small discernible difference in the performance for the different transfer functions</i> .

Digital training platform for interpreting radiographic images of the chest

IntroductionTime delays and errors exist which lead to delays in patient care and misdiagnosis. Reporting clinicians follow guidance to form their own search strategy. However, little research has tested these training guides. With the use of eye tracking technology and expert input we developed a digital training platform to be used in chest image interpretation learning. MethodsTwo sections of a digital training platform were planned and developed; A) a search strategy training tool to assist reporters during their interpretation of images, and B) an educational tool to communicate the search strategies of expert viewers to trainees by using eye tracking technology. ResultsA digital training platform for use in chest image interpretation was created based on evidence within the literature, expert input and two search strategies previously used in clinical practice. Images and diagrams, aiding translation of the platform content, were incorporated where possible. The platform is structured to allow the chest image interpretation process to be clear, concise and methodical. ConclusionA search strategy was incorporated within the tool to investigate its use, with the possibility that it could be recommended as an evidence based approach for use by reporting clinicians. Eye tracking, a checklist and voice recordings have been combined to form a multi-dimensional learning tool, which has never been used in chest image interpretation learning before. The training platform for use in chest image interpretation learning has been designed, created and digitised. Future work will establish the efficacy of the developed approaches.

Paper: Expert Viewers' Preferences for Higher Frame Rate 3D Film

Recently the movie industry has been advocating the use of frame rates significantly higher than the traditional 24 frames per second. This higher frame rate theoretically improves the quality of motion portrayed in movies, and helps avoid motion blur, judder and other undesirable artifacts. Previously we reported that young adult audiences showed a clear preference for higher frame rates, particularly when contrasting 24 fps with 48 or 60 fps. We found little impact of shutter angle (frame exposure time) on viewers' choices. In the current study we replicated this experiment with an audience composed of imaging professionals who work in the film and display industry who assess image quality as an aspect of their everyday occupation. These viewers were also on average older and thus could be expected to have attachments to the "film look" both through experience and training. We used stereoscopic 3D content, filmed and projected at multiple frame rates (24, 48 and 60 fps), with shutter angles ranging from 90&#xB0; to 358&#xB0;, to evaluate viewer preferences. In paired-comparison experiments we assessed preferences along a set of five attributes (realism, motion smoothness, blur/clarity, quality of depth and overall preference). As with the young adults in the earlier study, the expert viewers showed a clear preference for higher frame rates, particularly when contrasting 24 fps with 48 or 60 fps. We found little impact of shutter angle on viewers' choices, with the exception of one clip at 48 fps where there was a preference for larger shutter angle. However, this preference was found for the most dynamic "warrior" clip in the experts but in the slower moving "picnic" clip for the na&#xEF;ve viewers. These data confirm the advantages afforded by high-frame rate capture and presentation in a cinema context in both na&#xEF;ve audiences and experienced film professionals. &#xA9; 2016 Society for Imaging Science and Technology.

Evaluation of stereoscopic visual fatigue in experts

Several objective or subjective measures have been employed to evaluate stereoscopic visual fatigue. Objective measures are more preferred for their capability to quantify the degree of human visual fatigue without being affected by individual variation. However, the combination of objective indicators, their sensibility in reflecting subjective fatigue and their applicability to different groups has rarely been studied. In our previous study based on non-expert experiment, we proposed a method combining subjective assessment and objective measures to evaluate stereoscopic visual fatigue and an objective visual fatigue model (non-expert model). In this study, we use the same procedure to conduct a contrast experiment in 2D and 3D conditions, but only with expert viewers. The results in 2D condition show that the two objective indicators are usable for visual fatigue evaluation. The difference between the results in 2D and 3D conditions shows that the stereo 3D can cause much more fatigue and the indicators can efficiently identify the extra fatigue with satisfactory accuracy. An objective visual fatigue model (expert-only model) is developed based on the data obtained in the 3D condition and is evaluated with comparison to the non-expert model. Both visual fatigue models show high correlation with the subjective data. The method we proposed is reasonably insusceptible to different viewer groups, and the results of repeated experiments are consistent. It is a promising approach to evaluate visual fatigue efficiently and objectively.

The Psychometrics of Photographic Cropping: The Influence of Colour, Meaning, and Expertise

Cropping is the central act of photography, the viewfinder of a camera being used to crop a portion of the visual world which is then surrounded with a frame. Six studies are described which show that the act of cropping is carried out reliably and confidently by both expert and non-expert participants. Two studies confirm that some croppers are better croppers than others, their cropped images being preferred aesthetically over the croppings of less-good croppers. Colour had little impact on cropping decisions, whereas thresholded monochrome images ('Mooney images') dramatically altered crop positions. That suggests that cropping can be driven top-down, by the meaning of objects in photographs, but the fact that the Mooneyised images are still cropped consistently, suggests that image structure, perhaps in the form of low-level image properties, may still be important. Experts crop pictures differently from non-experts, and they take longer, viewing a wider range of possible crops, pausing longer to assess crops, and using more formal terminology when reflecting on their cropping decisions. Experts' crops are not, however, preferred more, either by non-expert viewers or by expert viewers. Cropping, it is suggested, is an ideal paradigm for experimental aesthetics, allowing precise experimental control with Fechner's Method of Production, a technique which normally is not easy to use.

Reduced cross‐talk in shutter‐glass‐based stereoscopic LCD

Abstract— It is expected that 3‐D will be the next step in the enhanced viewing experience. At present, there are two competing 3‐D technologies for glasses‐based consumer TVs: active shutter glasses and passive polarized glasses. With the ongoing reduction in response time of liquid‐crystal displays (LCDs), this article will focus on shutter‐glass‐based stereoscopic LCDs. In this paper, the properties of such a display system is described and it is demonstrated that by adding a line‐scanning backlight, the cross‐talk can be reduced to less than 1.4%, allowing for excellent 3‐D portrayal. For images of extreme contrast, this is perceivable, but not judged annoying by a panel of expert viewers. Which characteristics of the display and shutter glasses that should be optimized to create an inexpensive, cross‐talk‐free, 3‐D LCD are discussed.

Automated cinematic reasoning about camera behavior

Automated control of a virtual camera is useful for both linear animation and interactive virtual environments. It has been partially addressed in the past by numeric constraint optimization and by idiom-based approaches. We have constructed a knowledge-based system that allows users to experiment with various cinematic genres and view the results in the form of animated 3D movies. We have followed a knowledge acquisition process converting domain expert principles into declarative rules, and our system uses non-monotonic reasoning in order to support absolute rules, default rules, and arbitrary user choices. We evaluated the tool by generating various movies and showing some of the results to a group of expert viewers.

Localization of epileptogenic zones in F-18 FDG brain PET of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy using artificial neural network.

For an objective interpretation of cerebral metabolic pattern to find epileptogenic zones in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), we developed a computer-aided classifier using an artificial neural network (ANN). We studied 261 epilepsy patients diagnosed as no abnormal findings (NA, n = 64), left TLE (n = 116), or right TLE (n = 81) on interictal brain F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) by the consensus of two expert physicians. Seventeen asymmetry indexes between the mean counts of the 34 mirrored regions were extracted from the spatially normalized images and used as input parameters. The three diagnoses of NA, left TLE, and right TLE were used as outputs of the ANN. The structure of the ANN was optimized with variable error goals and the number of hidden units. On the criteria of agreement of diagnoses with those of expert viewers, the best classifier was chosen, which yielded a maximum average agreement of 85% for the test set when we used an error goal of 20 (sum of squared error) and ten hidden units. We could devise an ANN that performed as well in diagnosing left or right TLE on FDG PET as human experts and could be used as a clinical decision support tool.