The Phosphene Simulation

by Greg Bryant Retinal self-organized criticality

Hoffman's Visual Rules

simulation of closed-eye hallucinations

A simulation of a noisy retinal sheet (fovea in center, blind spot off-center to left) changing with near-critical dynamics.

This is fed to a "visual rule" perception engine, generating a 3D model, which is then rendered in 2D.

Fields of aligned activity are “inflated”, echoing D. Hoffman's description of shape rules.

This creates an effective first-order simulation, for the viewer, of the phenomenal experience of closed-eye illusions.

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