Elements of early vision for computer graphics

Visually based techniques in computer graphics have blossomed. Important advances in perceptually driven rendering, realistic image display, high-fidelity visualization, and appearance-preserving geometric simplification have all been realized by applying knowledge of the limitations and capabilities of human visual processing. Much of this work is grounded in the physiology and psychophysics of early vision, which focuses on how visual mechanisms transduce and code the patterns of light arriving at the eye. The article surveys some of the fundamental findings in the study of early vision including basic visual anatomy and physiology, optical properties of the eye, light sensitivity and visual adaptation, and spatial vision.