Simon Rushton Email & Phone Number

I've worked in academia (eg University of Edinburgh and York University, Toronto) and industry (Nissan, Hewlett-Packard) on both sides of the Atlantic (eg Cambridge, Mass and Cardiff, UK).Most of my work fits under the broad title of “vision research”, predominantly human vision. However, along the way I have strayed into neuropsychology (brain injury), robotics, ergonomics, Virtual Reality and fMRI. I guess I'd sum up my work today as concerned with "visually guided action". By this I mean I am interested in finding out what information and algorithms the brain uses during the successful completion of a visually guided movement. To redescribe this interest in applied terms you could say I want to know: what visual information do I need to provide in a (real or virtual) environment if I want someone to comfortably interact with it; what algorithms should my robot use to perform with a human-level of competence; or how do I design this device so that a human can understand what its doing (its actions are intuitive).Recently I've become a little preoccupied with how the brain identifies whether an object is stationary or moving (and in the latter case how its moving). The interesting complication is that when you are moving, the whole scene is in motion within the retinal image. Its an old theoretical problem, but its also an important applied problem, eg if you are designing a system for visual analytics and you want someone to notice objects that move, or if you are interested in understanding deficits following a stroke that follow from brain damage along the visual pathway. I'm interested in both theoretical and applied issues, and I like unsolved problems, so thats probably why its my current favourite.Specialties: Visual Guidance of Movement (locomotion; interception) in Real and Virtual EnvironmentsNovel Display Devices (stereo HMDs etc)Perceptual Stability; Identification of Moving Objects within the Scene.

Listed skills include Lecturing, University Teaching, Science, Research Design, and 13 others.