Senior Scientist for Vision Research
Flight Management and Human Factors Research Division
NASA Ames Research Center

1969-73

Columbia University, Psychology

1973-77

University of Pennsylvania, Psychology, Ph.D.

1980-82

Senior Research Associate, Stanford University

1977-80

NIH Research Fellow, Cambridge University, England

Visual neuroscience and psychophysics
Computational models of visual function
Applications of vision science to imaging technology and computer vision

1996

Optical Society of America, Vision Technical Group, Chair

1993

Editor, Displays: Technology and Applications

1988

Editor, Journal of Mathematical Psychology

1992-96

Editor, Visual Neuroscience

1990-92

Program Committee, Assoc. for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology

1987-92

National Research Council, Committee on Vision

1989

Program Committee, Society for Information Display

1991

National Research Council, Conf. Chair for "Visual factors in elect. image communications"

1990

National Research Council, Conference Chair for "Visual Search"

1985-87

National Research Council, Panel on "Night Blindness"

1987-89

National Research Council, Panel on "Pilot Performance Models"

1994

NASA Ames Science Advisory Council

1985-1989

NASA Ames Strategy and Tactics Committee

1993

Fellow, Optical Society of America

1993-96

NASA Ames Associate Fellow

1990

H. Julian Allen Award

1989, 97

NASA Space Act Award

1986

NASA Superior Performance Award

1977-80

NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship

1975-77

Institute of Neurological Sciences Fellowship

1976

Sigma Xi Prize for Graduate Research

1973-74

University of Pennsylvania Teaching Fellowship

Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology

Optical Society of America (Fellow)

Society for Information Display

International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE)

Journal Articles

• Watson, A. B. (1997). The search for optimal visual stimuli. Vision Research, in press.
• Watson, A. B. & Solomon, J. A. (1997). A model of visual contrast gain control and pattern masking. Journal of the Optical Society A , 14, 2378 - 2390.
• Watson, A. B., Yang, G. Y., Solomon, J. A. & Villasenor, J. (1997). Visibility of wavelet quantization noise. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing , 6(8), 1164-1175.
• Rohaly, A. M., Ahumada, A. J., Jr. & Watson, A. B. (1997). Object detection in natural backgrounds predicted by discrimination performance and models. Vision Research 37(23), 3225-3235.
• Eckstein, M. P., Ahumada, A. J., Jr. & Watson, A. B. (1997). Visual signal detection in structured backgrounds. II. Effects of contrast gain control, background variations and white noise. Journal of the Optical Society A , 14(9), 2406-2419.
• Watson, A. B. & Solomon, J. A. (1997). Psychophysica: Mathematica notebooks for psychophysical experiments. Spatial Vision , 10(4), 447-466.
• Solomon, J. A. & Watson, A. B. (1996). Cinematica: A system for calibrated, Macintosh-driven displays from within Mathematica. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 28(4), 607-610.
• Watson, A. B. & Turano, K. A. (1995). The optimal motion stimulus. Vision Research 35(3), 325-336.
• Watson, A. B. (1994). Image compression using the Discrete Cosine Transform. The Mathematica Journal, 4(1), 81-88.
• Watson, A. B. & Eckert, M. P. (1994). Motion-Contrast Sensitivity: Visibility of Motion Gradients of Various Spatial Frequencies. Journal of the Optical Society of America A 11(2), 496-505.
• Eckert, M. P., Buchsbaum, G., & Watson, A. B. (1992). Separability of spatiotemporal spectra of image sequences. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 14(12), 1210-1213.
• Watson, A. B. (1992). Transfer of contrast sensitivity in linear visual networks. Visual Neuroscience 8, 65-76.
• Watson, A. B. (1990). Perceptual-components architecture for digital video. Journal of the Optical Society of America A 7(10), 1943-1954.
• Watson, A. B. (1990). Optimal displacement in apparent motion and quadrature models of motion sensing. Vision Research 30(9), 1389-1393.
• Watson, A. B. (1990). Gain, noise, and contrast sensitivity of linear visual neurons. Visual Neuroscience 4, 147-157.
• Watson, A. B., & Fitzhugh, A. (1990). The method of constant stimuli is inefficient. Perception & Psychophysics 47(1), 87-91.
• Stone, L. S., Watson, A. B., & Mulligan, J. B. (1990). Effect of contrast on the perceived direction of a moving plaid. Vision Research 30(7), 1049-1067.
• Watson, A. B., & Ahumada, A. J., Jr. (1989). A hexagonal orthogonal oriented pyramid as a model of image representation in visual cortex. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 36(1), 97-106.
• Peterson, V. L., Kim, J., Holst, T. L., Deiwert, G. S., Cooper, D. M., Watson, A. B., & Baily, F. R. (1989). Supercomputer requirements for selected disciplines important to aerospace. IEEE Proceedings 77(7), 1038-1055.
• Watson A. B. (1987) Efficiency of an image code based on human vision Journal of the Optical Society of America A 4(12), 2401-2417.
• Watson A. B. (1987) The cortex transform: Rapid computation of simulated neural images. Computer Vision, Graphics, and Image Processing 39(3), 311-327.
• Watson A. B. (1987) On the estimation of local scale. Journal of the Optical Society of America A 4, 1579-1582.
• Watson A. B. and Poirson A. (1986) Separable two-dimensional discrete Hartley transform. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 3(12), 2001-2004.
• Watson A. B. (1986) Apparent motion occurs only between similar spatial frequencies. Vision Research 26(10), 1727-1730.
• Watson A. B., Ahumada A. J. Jr., and Farrell J. E. (1986) Window of visibility: A psychophysical theory of fidelity in time-sampled visual motion displays. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 3(3), 300-307.
• Watson A. B., Nielsen K. R. K., Poirson A., Fitzhugh A., Bilson A., Nguyen K., and Ahumada A. J. Jr. (1986) Use of a raster framebuffer in vision research. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers 18(6) 587-594.
• Watson A. B. and Ahumada A. J., Jr. (1985) Model of human visual motion sensing. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 2, 322-342.
• Ahumada A. J., Jr. and Watson A. B. (1985) Equivalent-noise model for contrast detection and discrimination. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 2, 7, 1133-1139.
• Nielsen K. R. K., Watson A. B., and Ahumada A. J., Jr., (1985) Application of a computable model of human spatial vision to phase discrimination. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 2, 9, 1600-1606.
• Enroth-Cugell, C., Robson, J. G., Schweitzer-Tong, D., & Watson, A. B. (1983). Spatio-temporal interactions in cat retinal ganglion cells showing linear spatial summation. Journal of Physiology (London) 341, 279-307.
• Watson A. B., Barlow H. B. & Robson J. G. (1983) What does the eye see best? Nature 302(5907), 419-422.
• Watson A. B. and Pelli D. G. (1983) QUEST: A Bayesian adaptive psychometric method. Perception & Psychophysics 33(2), 113-120.
• Watson A. B. (1982) Derivation of the impulse response: Comments on the method of Roufs and Blommaert. Vision Research 22, 1335-1337.
• Watson A. B. (1982) Summation of grating patches indicates many types of detector at one retinal location. Vision Research 22, 17-25.
• Watson A. B. (1981) A single-channel model does not predict visibility of asynchronous gratings. Vision Research 21, 1799-1800.
• Watson A. B. & Robson J. G. (1981) Discrimination at threshold: Labeled detectors in human vision. Vision Research 21, 1115-1122.
• Watson A. B. & Nachmias J. (1980) Summation of asynchronous gratings. Vision Research 20, 91-94.
• Watson A. B., Thompson P. G., Murphy J. & Nachmias J. (1980) Summation and discrimination of gratings moving in opposite directions.Vision Research 20, 341-347.
• Watson A. B. (1979) Probability summation over time. Vision Research 19, 515-522.
• Watson A. B. & Nachmias J. (1977) Patterns of temporal interaction in the detection of gratings. Vision Research 17, 893-902.

Books and Book Chapters

• Watson, A. B., ed. (1993). Digital images and human vision. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
• Watson, A. B. & A. J. Ahumada, J. (1994). A hexagonal orthogonal-oriented pyramid as a model of image representation in visual cortex. In M. M. G. a. G. K. Knopf (Ed.), Neuro-vision systems: principles and applications New York: IEEE Press.
• Watson, A. B. (1991). Cortical Algotecture. In C. B. Blakemore (Ed.), Vision: Coding and efficiency Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Watson, A. B. (1991). Neural contrast sensitivity. In M. S. Landy, & J. A. Movshon (Ed.), Computational models of visual processing (pp. 95-107). Cambridge: MIT Press.
• Watson, A. B. (1991). Multidimensional pyramids in vision and video. In A. Gorea (Ed.), Representations of vision: trends and tacit assumptions in vision research (pp. 17-26). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Watson, A. B. (1990). Models in early vision. In J. I. Elkind, S. K. Card, J. Hochberg, & B. M. Huey (Ed.), Pilot performance models for computer-aided engineering (pp. 61-74). Boston: Academic Press.
• Watson, A. B. (1989) Toward a model-based human factors. In W. B. Rouse (Ed.), Advances in man-machine systems research, vol. 5, (pp. 229-279). Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press.
• Watson A. B (1987) The role of vision models in human factors. Night Vision Washington D.C.: National Academy of Sciences Press.
• Watson A. B. (1987) The ideal observer as a modeling tool. Frontiers of visual science: Proceedings of the 1985 Symposium. Washington D.C.:National Academy Press, 32-37.
• Watson, A. B. (1986). Temporal Sensitivity. In K. Boff, L. Kaufman, & J. Thomas (Ed.), Handbook of Perception and Human Performance New York: Wiley.
• Watson A. B. (1983) Detection and recognition of simple spatial forms. In Physical and biological processing of images.Edited by O. J. Braddick and A. C. Slade. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Also published as NASA Technical Memorandum 84353 .
• Watson, A. B., & Ahumada, A. J., Jr. (1983). A look at motion in the frequency domain. In J. K. Tsotsos (Ed.), Motion: Perception and representation (pp. 1-10). New York: Association for Computing Machinery. Also published as NASA Technical Memorandum 84352 .

Patents

• Watson, A. B. (1997). Image data compression having minimum perceptual error. US Patent 5,629,780.
• Watson, A. B. (1995). Image data compression having minimum perceptual error. US Patent 5,426,512.

Technical Reports & Conference Proceedings

• Watson, A. B., Borthwick, R. & Taylor, M. (1997). DCTune perceptual optimization of compressed dental X-Rays Proceedings, Medical Imaging, Newport Beach, CA, SPIE, 3031, pp.
• Watson, A. B. (1997). Compressing image data with minimal perceptual errors. NASA Tech Briefs 21(1), 73-74.
• Watson, A. B., Taylor, M. & Borthwick, R. (1997). Image quality and entropy masking Proceedings, Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display VIII, San Jose, CA, SPIE, Bellingham, WA, 3016, pp. 2-12.
• Eckstein, M. P., Ahumada, A. J., Jr. & Watson, A. B. (1997). Image discrimination models predict human detection in medical images Proceedings, Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display VIII, San Jose, CA, SPIE, Bellingham, WA, 3016, pp.
• Eckstein, M. P., Ahumada, A. J., Jr., Watson, A. B. & Whiting, J. S. (1997). What is degrading human visual detection performance in natural medical image backgrounds? Proceedings, Medical Imaging, Newport Beach, CA, SPIE, Bellingham, WA, 3031, pp.
• Watson, A. B. (1996). Perceptual image compression in telemedicine Proceedings, Advanced medical image compression, storage and transmission technologies workshop, Anaheim, CA, NASA.
• Rosenholtz, R. & Watson, A. B. (1996). Perceptual adaptive JPEG coding Proceedings, IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, Lausanne, Switzerland, IEEE, I, pp. 901-904.
• Watson, A. B., Yang, G. Y., Solomon, J. A. & Villasenor, J. (1996). Perceptual approaches to wavelet quantization Proceedings, IEEE Image and Multidimensional Digital Signal Processing Workshop, Belize, IEEE.
• Watson, A. B., Yang, G. Y., Solomon, J. A. & Villasenor, J. (1996). Perceptually lossless wavelet compression Proceedings, NASA Data Compression Workshop, Snowbird, Utah, NASA
• Watson, A. B., Yang, G. Y., Solomon, J. A. & Villasenor, J. (1996). Visual thresholds for wavelet quantization error. In B. Rogowitz, & J. Allebach (Ed.), Human Vision and Electronic Imaging (pp. 382-392). The Society for Imaging Science and Technology.
• Rohaly, A. M., Ahumada, A. J., Jr. & Watson, A. B. (1995). A Comparison of Image Quality Models and Metrics Predicting Object Detection. In J. Morreale (Ed.), Society for Information Display International Symposium Digest of Technical Papers (pp. 45-48). Santa Ana, CA: Society for Information Display.
• van Dijk, T., Martens, J.-B. & Watson, A. B. (1995). Quality assessment of JPEG-coded images using numerical category scaling Proceedings, European Symposium on Advanced Networks and Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, European Optical Society, in press.
• Watson, A. B., & Ahumada, A. J., Jr. (1995). ICT quantization matrix design for the Galileo S-Band Mission. NASA Technical Memorandum, in press.
• Watson, A. B., & Ahumada, A. J., Jr. (1995). Preservation of photometric accuracy in ICT-compressed imagery. NASA Technical Memorandum, in press.
• Ahumada, A. J., Jr., Watson, A. B. & Rohaly, A. M. (1995). Models of human image discrimination predict object detection in natural backgrounds Proceedings, Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display VI (SPIE Proceedings v. 2411), in press.
• Watson, A. B., Solomon, J. A. & Ahumada, A. J., Jr. (1994). The visibility of DCT basis functions: effects of display resolution Proceedings, Data Compression Conference, Snowbird, Utah, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 371-379.
• Watson, A. B., Gale, A., Solomon, J. A. & Ahumada, A. J., Jr. (1994). Visibility of DCT Quantization Noise: Effects of Display Resolution Proceedings, Society for Information Display, San Jose, CA, Society for Information Display, pp. 697-700.
• Solomon, J. A., Watson, A. B. & A. J. Ahumada, Jr. (1994). Visibility of DCT Quantization Noise: Contrast Masking. In J. Morreale (Ed.), Society for Information Display International Symposium Digest of Technical Papers (pp. 701-703). Santa Ana, CA: Society for Information Display.
• Peterson, H. A., A. J. Ahumada, J. & Watson, A. B. (1994). Visibility of DCT Quantization Noise: Spatial Frequency Summation. In J. Morreale (Ed.), Society for Information Display International Symposium Digest of Technical Papers, (pp. 704-707). Santa Ana, CA: SID.
• Peterson, H. A., Ahumada, A. J., Jr. & Watson, A. B. (1994). The visibility of DCT quantization noise: spatial frequency summation Proceedings, Data Compression Conference, Snowbird, Utah, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 530.
• Solomon, J. A., Watson, A. B. & Ahumada, A. J., Jr. (1994). The visibility of DCT basis functions: effects of contrast masking Proceedings, Data Compression Conference, Snowbird, Utah, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 361-370.
• Watson, A. B., Gale, A., Ahumada, A. J., Jr. & Solomon, J. (1994). DCT Basis Function Visibility: Effects of Viewing Distance and Contrast Masking. In B. E. Rogowitz (Ed.), Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display IV Bellingham, WA: SPIE.
• Watson, A. B. (1993). DCT quantization matrices visually optimized for individual images Proceedings, Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display IV, Bellingham, WA, SPIE, pp. 202-216.
• Watson, A. B. (1993). DCTune: A technique for visual optimization of DCT quantization matrices for individual images. Society for Information Display Digest of Technical Papers XXIV, 946-949.
• Watson, A. B. (1993). Visually optimal DCT quantization matrices for individual images Proceedings, Data Compression Conference Proceedings 1993, Washington, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 178-187.
• Peterson, H. A., Ahumada, A. J., Jr., & Watson, A. B. (1993). The Visibility of DCT Quantization Noise. SPIE Proceedings 1913, 942-945.
• Peterson, H. A., Ahumada, A. J., Jr., & Watson, A. B. (1993). An improved detection model for DCT coefficient quantization. SPIE Proceedings 1913 , 191-201.
• Watson, A. B. (1992). Vision models for information display. SID Seminar Lecture Notes (pp. M-7/1-46). Playa Del Rey, CA: Society for Information Display.
• Watson, A. B., & Tiana, C. L. M. (1992). Color motion video coded by perceptual components. Society for Information Display Digest of Technical Papers 23, 314-317.
• Watson, A. B. (1992). Models of human vision SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering Short Course Notes SC1.
• Watson, A. B. (1990). Digital visual communications using a perceptual components architecture. Pasadena, CA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
• Stone, L. S., Watson, A. B., & Mulligan, J. B. (1989). Contrast affects the perception of direction of a moving pattern. NASA Technical Memorandum 102234.
• Watson, A. B., & Mulligan, J. B. (1989). Vision Science and Technology at NASA: Results of a workshop. NASA Technical Memorandum 102214.
• Stein, C. S., Watson, A. B., & Hitchner, L. E. (1989). Psychophysical rating of image compression techniques. Optical Society of America, 1989 Technical Digest Series 16, 76-80.
• Watson, A. B., & Fitzhugh, A. E. (1989). Modelling character legibility. Society for Information Display Digest of Technical Papers 20, 360-363.
• Stein, C. S., Watson, A. B., & Hitchner, L. E. (1989). Psychophysical rating of various compression techniques. SPIE Proceedings 1077.
• Watson, A. B. (1989). Receptive fields and visual representations. SPIE Proceedings 1077, 190-197.
• Watson, A. B. (1989). Recursive, in-place algorithm for the hexagonal orthogonal oriented quadrature image pyramid. Proceedings of the SPIE 1099, 194-200.
• Ahumada, A. J., Jr., & Watson, A. B. (1988). Simulation of early visual processes. Proceedings of the 1988 Computer Simulation Conference, 411-415.
• Nagel D. C. & Watson A. B. (1987) Toward computational human factors. AIAA Conference Proceedings.
• Watson A. B., Ahumada A. J. Jr. (1987) An orthogonal oriented quadrature hexagonal image pyramid. NASA Technical Memorandum 100054
• Watson A. B. (1986) Ideal shrinking and expansion of discrete sequences. NASA Technical Memorandum 88202.
• Ahumada A. J., Jr. and Watson A. B. (1984) Uniform apparent contrast noise: A picture of the noise of the visual contrast detection system. NASA Technical Memorandum 85867.
• Ahumada A. J., Jr., Nagel D. C., and Watson A. B. and Yellott J. I., Jr. (1983) Reduction of display artifacts by random sampling. Proceedings of the SPIE 432, 216-221.
• Watson A. B. & Pelli D. G. (1979) The QUEST staircase procedure. Applied Vision Association Newsletter 14 , 6-7.
• Watson A. B. (1977) The visibility of temporal modulations of a spatial pattern. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Pennsylvania.

Selected Invited Presentations

• Image Quality, Applied Vision Association, Keynote Speech, Dundee, Scotland, 4/10/97
• Perceptual Modeling of Image Quality , Integrated Media Center, Univ. of Southern California, 2/97
• Image quality and vision models, Optical Society of America Annual Meeting, 11/96.
• Perceptual aspects of image compression. Optical Society of America Annual Meeting, 11/94.
• Digital video and human visual perception. NSF Workshop on Digital Video, UC Irvine, 12/93.
• Vision models for display design. EuroDisplay 93: The 13th International Display Research Conference Seminar and Exhibition, Strasbourg, France: 9/93.
• Vision Models for information display. Society for Information Display, Boston, MA, 5/92.
• Models of human vision. SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering Symposium on Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display, 2/92.
• Image decomposition in human vision. Optical Society of America Annual Meeting, 11/91.
• Perceptual approaches to image coding. National Research Council Workshop on Visual Factors in Electronic Image Communications, Woods Hole, MA, 7/91.
• Vision Science and Technology: designing for the minds eye. Dedication Symposium for the NASA Human Performance Research Laboratory 6/90.
• Multidimensional pyramids in vision and video. Symposium on Visual Pyramids and Neural Networks, 13th European Conference on Visual Perception, Paris 9/90.
• Mathematica and Vision Science. First Annual Mathematica Conference, Redwood City, CA, 1/90.
• Spatiotemporal contrast sensitivity of linear visual neurons. 12th European Conference on Visual Perception, Haifa, Israel, 9/89.
• Neural Contrast sensitivity, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Symposium on Computational models in visual processing, 6/89.
• Neural codes, receptive fields, and visual representations. Optical Society of America Topical Meeting on Applied Vision, San Fransisco, CA, 7/89.
• Neural Image Codes. at NASA International Workshop on Visual Information Processing for Television and Telerobotics, Williamsburg, VA, 5/89.
• Receptive fields and visual representations. SPIE Meeting on "Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Displays" 1/89.
• Modelling character legibility, Society for Information Display, Baltimore MD, 5/89
• Human visual representation of spatial imagery. Tenth European Conference on Visual Perception, Varna, Bulgaria, September, 1987.
• Hypothetical image codes in human vision. Symposium on Vision: Coding and Efficiency, Cambridge, England, September, 1987.
• Efficient image compression based on human vision models. Rank Prize Funds Symposium on Efficiency in Human and Machine Vision,London, England, December, 1986.
• Efficient image representation and the perception of shape. Rochester Center for Visual Science, Symposium on Computational Vision, University of Rochester, June, 1986.
• The ideal observer concept in models of human vision. National Research Council, Committee on Vision, Symposium on Frontiers of Visual Science, Washington, DC, December, 1985.
• The role of models in human factors. National Research Council, Committee on Vision, Conference on Night Vision, Brooks AFB, October, 1985.
• Computational experiments in spatial vision. Annual meeting of theOptical Society of America,San Diego, CA, October, 1984.
• A model of human visual motion sensing, Annual meeting of the Society for Mathematical Psychology, Chicago, IL, August, 1984.
• Computational models of human vision. Rochester Center for Visual Science Symposium on Mechanisms of Spatial Vision, University of Rochester, June, 1984.
• Human visual processing of moving images. Rank Prize Funds Symposium on Biological and Engineering Aspects of Visual Hyperacuity and Depth Perception, Cambridge, England, January, 1984.
• Detection and recognition of simple spatial forms. Rank Prize Funds Symposium on Physical and Biological Processing of Images,London, England, August 1982.

Colloquia

• Stanford University, Stanford, CA
• University of California, San Diego, CA
• University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
• University of California, Berkeley, CA
• University of California, Santa Cruz, CA
• University of California, Irvine, CA
• University of Southern Calif., Los Angeles, CA
• Cambridge University, Cambridge, England
• Oxford University, Oxford, England
• University of Sussex, Brighton, England
• University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
• New York University, New York, NY
• RCA Sarnoff Research Labs, Princeton, NJ
• Smith-Kettlewell Institute, San Fransisco, CA