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Chapter 3. Some general concepts.
3.1. INTRODUCTION.
In the previous chapter I presented an interpretation of the early stages of human visual function,
together with some interesting observations on outside influences. We are still continuing to amass
data to assist and refine our interpretation of some aspects of visual function. In the meantime we
have, since the early 1970's, been gradually developing and refining a multiparametric visual
threshold performance model ORACLE (Observer Response in Acquisition from Contrast and
Length of Edges). This model has been found to be widely versatile, provided that the stimuli are
sufficiently simple to be approximated as discs, squares, rectangles or periodic simple patterns.
However, many stimuli are not sufficiently simple to warrant such approximation. Hence there was a
need to attempt to simulate the distortions and simplifications of complex stimuli between the
dioptrics of the eye and the perceptual levels of the cortex.
Some 14 years ago we believed that we had sufficient inferred knowledge of the inner workings of
the early visual processes , at least for foveal vision and as far as the optic nerve, to put together a
computer simulation of these processes. Thus a computer simulation was born which we
codenamed VISIVE (Visual Information Sensing by Interrogation of Vector Edges). The intention
originally was that the transformed (and simplified) image at the optic nerve could then be used as an
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