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Vision Group

The Vision Group at NASA Ames Research Center was a team of scientists and engineers who conducted research on human vision and visual technology for NASA missions. The Group consisted of the Vision Lab, the Visuomotor Control Laboratory and the Ocular Imaging Laboratory.

Examples of research figures used in the development of NASA's Spatial Standard Observer (SSO) tool. The spatial standard observer is a computational model that provides a measure of the visibility of a target in a uniform background image or of the visual discriminability of two images.
Examples of research figures used in the development of NASA’s Spatial Standard Observer (SSO) tool. The spatial standard observer is a computational model that provides a measure of the visibility of a target in a uniform background image or of the visual discriminability of two images.
Credit- NASA

The Vision Lab conducted research in varied areas such as visual neuroscience and psychophysics, computational models of visual function and applications of vision science to human factors, displays, imaging technology, and computer vision.

The Ocular Imaging Laboratory develops image-based technology for passive eye monitoring, and applies these technologies to scientific problems both basic and applied.

For the past 20 years, the Visuomotor Control Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center has conducted neuroscience research with the aim of understanding the link between eye movements and brain function. The lab has worked to systematically validate the use of oculometrics to quantify visual motion perception and has developed hardware and software tools for this purpose.

An Ocular Imaging research study with NASA researcher Jeffrey Mulligan, P.I. of the Ocular Imaging Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center.
An Ocular Imaging research study with NASA researcher Jeffrey Mulligan, lead of the Ocular Imaging Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center.
Credit- NASA

Noteworthy Publications

Watson, A.B. (1983). What Does the Eye See Best?, Horace B. Barlow, & John G. Robson, Nature, 302(5907), 419-422.

Ahumada, A.J., Null, C.H. (1993). Image Quality: A Multidimensional Problem, Society for Information Display Digest (Paper 44-1).

Ahumada, A.J., Beard, B.L. (1996). Object detection in a noisy scene, in B. Rogowitz and J. Allebach, eds., Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display VII, SPIE Proc. Vol. 2657 (paper 23), Bellingham, WA: SPIE..

Watson, A.B., (1997). The Search for Optimal Visual Stimuli, Vision Research, 38, 1619-1621.

B. R. Beutter, & L. S. Stone (2002). Oculometrics: Validating a New Technology for Non-intrusive Monitoring of Human Performance, Proceedings of NASA’s 2002 Space Human Factors conference.

Watson, A.B., Ahumada, A. J. (2006). The Spatial Standard Observer, NASA Tech Briefs, September 2006.

* Please note, this webpage is not actively maintained and is for historical reference only.