The Elephant in the Image [new study]

Can state-of -the-art visual analysis software always be relied on to find the elephant in an image? Akshay Raj Dhamija and colleagues at the VAST lab (Vision And Security Technology) at the Department of Computer Science, at University of Colorado, at Colorado Springs, US. have recently investigated the robustness of automated elephant detector systems. The team […]

Cigarettes That Are Visually Offputting (research study)

A number of countries have passed laws which require cigarette manufacturers to show ‘denormalising’ images on their packaging. To take things a step further, why not make the cigarettes themselves more unappealing? This was the question tackled by a joint Australian – New Zealand research team in 2015. A set of potentially unpleasant cigarette designs […]

Looking at Tyrells potato crisp packets (image ecology study)

  Within the academic field of aesthetics, there aren’t all that many essays written   on   about potato crisp packets. There is, however, at least one. Karin Wagner, who is professor and associate head of department for research in art history and visual studies at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, specialises in the areas […]

Improbable Research