Above are some recognition stimulus images paired with their ‘degraded/abstracted” image. Apparently the neurons involved in the recognition process prefer the more abstract stimuli.

Two article by Tanaka on Object Recognition and Deformation Column Matrices in the Inferotemopral Cortex

Cereb. Cortex-2003-Tanaka-90-9

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Sven Panis, Joris Vangeneugden, Hans P. Op de Beeck, Johan Wagemans on Object Deformation and Recognition

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SVO Stimulus Set

The above animation (from http://www.pnas.org/content/112/4/E361/suppl/DCSupplemental) uses only nine points to evoke the figure walking.

Johansson’s ground breaking point light experiments have given rise to whole field of research into the perception of bio-dynamics, including this interactive sex-changing walker at BioMotionLabs.

Johansson in his work managed to evoke the movement of a human leg with just three dots.

I want to do something equivalent with a still figure. That is, I would like to explore the minimum marks required to draw a recognisable figure.

Of course, people have been seeing people, animals and objects in dots of light in the sky for thousands of years.