Auckland Transport are very worried about Things.

Here's the poster:

I'm poster 37 this afternoon at #epc2025 if anyone wants to hear about a material perception experiment in VR that is not working out how I'd expected 😅

Took me a while but I solved the treasure hunt and made it to Sydney #EPC2025 #EPCAPCV2025

(what hashtag are we using?)

tldr: VLMs match or beat human performance in what vision science considers complex, high level visual tasks (face and object recognition) but struggle with low and mid level tasks (length, orientation, texture, occlusion).

We see "clinical deficits" (<2SD below human norm) on most "simple" tasks.

If you're in Auckland, quick — go look under the trees outside the Science Centre on Symonds St!

Some excellent body horror going on in the flowerbeds.

I'm editing a special issue of i-Perception (@pec-ipe.bsky.social) on 3D objects and shape.

Please consider us if you're currently wondering where to send that object recognition or mid-level shape project!

And get in touch if you're interested but would need more time.

bit.ly/ipe-objects

I'm at the @acnsau.bsky.social conference #ACNS2024 here in Newcastle (hi if you're also here!). There's a very perceptually interesting water sculpture in the gardens just across from the town hall and venue!

Hi bluesky, it's time for my monthly social media post when I have rendered stimuli* too pretty not to share....... Today, a collection of wooden nuggets on a stick.

* something along the way towards being a stimulus, anyway

I've been off social media for a long time, but I was playing around with potential expt stimuli the other day in Blender and these cyberpunk blobs are just too pretty not to share...

(went to the Museum of Contemporary Art while I was in Lisbon and saw a very cool Tony Cragg exhibition)

Ridiculous return from family xmas in Portugal:
- due to a flight delay I got ping-ponged across the US for >60hrs (Lisbon-Newark-Houston-Chicago-LA-Auckland)
- arrived 25hrs late
- also they lost my luggage
- also my partner is stuck in Lisbon waiting for new NZ visa

Starting 2024 empty-handed 😕

Also, they let you touch the opera house!

✅ USyd talk done
⬜ UMelb I'm on my way!

Damn Sydney is really gorgeous!? Is never visited the campus or spent time outside the CBD before. Beautiful buildings, quirky streets, buzzing with life.

Mind blown! In Sydney you can just tap on and off the buses with any contactless bank card from anywhere in the world without having to register anything!? Why don't other cities know about this technology??

Auckland sky and coastline looking gorgeous from tbe airport this afternoon!

I'm off to Sydney and then Melbourne to talk to collaborators and anyone else who's willing :)

For some non-science content, I'll be doing the #inktober2023 challenge by making 31 linocut prints in the next two months*

*doing half-pace marathon version this year (one prompt every two days), cos I'm busy sciencing in Australia this Oct!

I'll mostly be posting on Instagram @ lotsoftinyrobots