Overview

An understanding of the senses - vision, hearing, touch, chemical and other non-human senses - is important not only for many fields of biology but also in applied areas such as human-computer interaction, robotics and computer games. Using information theory as a unifying framework, this is a wide-ranging survey of sensory systems, covering all known senses. The book draws on three unifying principles to examine senses: the Nyquist sampling theorem, Shannon's information theory, and the creation of different streams of information to subserve different tasks. This framework is used to discuss the fascinating role of sensory adaptation in the context of environment and lifestyle. Providing a fundamental grounding in sensory perception, the book then demonstrates how this knowledge can be applied to the design of human-computer interfaces and virtual environments. It is an ideal resource for both graduate and undergraduate students of biology, engineering (robotics) and computer science.

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9781139016001

Table of Contents

Reviews

'The book concludes with ... pages of useful and excellent references for those who want additional information ... [it] is certainly interesting to read and will be useful for researchers using sensing technology in areas such as human-computer interaction or robotics.' Ramaswamy Palaniappan, Computing Reviews 'Both the breadth and depth of Introduction to the Senses are impressive ... More than anything, it serves to inspire. A go-to resource for pertinent ideas, this is indeed a reference book worth keeping on the shelf.' Jean Huang, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine The book concludes with 28 pages of useful and excellent references for those who want additional information. Overall, the book is certainly interesting to read and will be useful for researchers using sensing technology in areas such as human-computer interaction or robotics. Ramaswamy Palaniappan, Computing Reviews Reading this book gave me several hours of intellectual pleasure. Discovering the nuances of the senses is extremely exciting, and the author presents the concepts in a didactic manner that, most of the time, makes them appear natural to the reader. The distance between the fields of biology and engineering and computer science is generally regarded as great. However, after reading this book, it seems like the distance is quickly shrinking and the line that separates the fields is narrowing. Agusti Solanas, Computing Reviews Both the breadth and depth of Introduction to the Senses are impressive... More than anything, it serves to inspire. A go-to resource for pertinent ideas, this is indeed a reference book worth keeping on the shelf. Jean Huang, The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine

'The book concludes with ... pages of useful and excellent references for those who want additional information ... [it] is certainly interesting to read and will be useful for researchers using sensing technology in areas such as human-computer interaction or robotics.' Ramaswamy Palaniappan, Computing Reviews 'Both the breadth and depth of Introduction to the Senses are impressive ... More than anything, it serves to inspire. A go-to resource for pertinent ideas, this is indeed a reference book worth keeping on the shelf.' Jean Huang, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine

Author Information

Terry R. J. Bossomaier is Professor in Computer Systems and Director of the Centre for Research in Complex Systems (CRiCS) at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia. He is particularly interested in sensory information in the context of vision and hearing and was involved in the creation of the first degree course in computer games in Australia in 2000.

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