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Foreword

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2012

Terry R. J. Bossomaier
Affiliation:
Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales
Allan Snyder Frs
Affiliation:
Director of the Centre for the Mind and 150th Anniversary Chair at the University of Sydney
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Summary

What are the commonalities of information gathering and processing in all living creatures? This is the implicit question that underpins Terry Bossomaier's ambitious book The Senses. His is a Herculean task and one to be greatly applauded.

Bossomaier addresses the senses using the tools of contemporary information science, in an attempt to provide a unifying perspective, one that allows for quantitative comparison of senses between the species.

This fascinates me. It is now nearly 35 years since Simon Laughlin, Doekele Stavenga and I introduced information theory to understand the design of eyes, both compound eyes of insects as well as the simple eyes of humans. We recognised that the fundamental limitations to resolving the power of eyes are the wave (diffraction) and particle (photon noise) nature of light. By appreciating their interrelation we derived insight into the design and limitations of eyes, especially between the optical image quality and the visual photoreceptor mosaic. The capacity of the eye to perceive its spatial environment was quantified by determining the number of different pictures that can be reconstructed by its array of visual cells. We were then able to decide on the best compromise between an animal's capacity for fine detail and contrast sensitivity. In a series of papers, including those with Bossomaier and A. Hughes, we went on to use the tools of information theory to study various aspects of eye design. It was a rewarding and rich endeavour, but one at that time limited to vision.

Type
Chapter
Information
Introduction to the Senses
From Biology to Computer Science
, pp. ix - x
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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  • Foreword
    • By Allan Snyder Frs, Director of the Centre for the Mind and 150th Anniversary Chair at the University of Sydney
  • Terry R. J. Bossomaier, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales
  • Book: Introduction to the Senses
  • Online publication: 05 July 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139016001.001
Available formats
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  • Foreword
    • By Allan Snyder Frs, Director of the Centre for the Mind and 150th Anniversary Chair at the University of Sydney
  • Terry R. J. Bossomaier, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales
  • Book: Introduction to the Senses
  • Online publication: 05 July 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139016001.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Foreword
    • By Allan Snyder Frs, Director of the Centre for the Mind and 150th Anniversary Chair at the University of Sydney
  • Terry R. J. Bossomaier, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales
  • Book: Introduction to the Senses
  • Online publication: 05 July 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139016001.001
Available formats
×