<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:15px;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(32,31,30)"><p style="margin:0px"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">Dear Colleagues,</span><br></p><p style="margin:0px"><br></p><p style="margin:0px"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">Happy New Year!</span></p><p style="margin:0px"><br></p><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">Please join the OSA Vision Technical Group for a virtual seminar featuring presentations from Larry Thibos, Professor Emeritus, School of Optometry at Indiana University, and Michael Bach, Professor Emeritus and Former Head Visual Function, Eye Center at University Medical Center Freiburg. More information about the talks can be found </span><a href="https://www.osa.org/en-us/meetings/webinar/2021/01_january/osa_virtual_vision_science_seminars/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" title="https://www.osa.org/en-us/meetings/webinar/2021/01_january/osa_virtual_vision_science_seminars/" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">here</span></a><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">.</span></div><p style="margin:0px"><br></p><p style="margin:0px"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black"><b>Date and time:</b></span><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black"> 28</span><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black"> January 2021, 12:00 - 13:30 Eastern Time</span><br></p><p style="margin:0px"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black"><b>Register here:</b> </span><a href="https://osa.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__pESpxojTTWvplGhwAu3qg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">https://osa.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__pESpxojTTWvplGhwAu3qg</span></a></p><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><br></div><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><p style="margin:0px"><b style="color:black;font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-variant-caps:inherit;font-variant-ligatures:inherit"><br></b></p><p style="margin:0px"><b style="color:black;font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-variant-caps:inherit;font-variant-ligatures:inherit">Imaging in our brain – Optical illusions neither “trick the eye” nor “fool the brain” presented by Michael Bach:</b><br></p><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">Our vision appears to us totally effortless, yet the perception of images, objects, color, and motion involves complicated, ill-understood processes in our brain. We usually assume that what we see is what our eyes have seen and then have transmitted to the brain. Rather, our visual system continuously “invents” an inner world as a basis for understanding and planning, based on incomplete information. This rests on experience, both evolutionary and individually; more formally this is the Bayesian interpretation of perception. When experience does not fit the current situation, ensuing missteps of our perceptual apparatus are called “optical illusions” and can reveal some of these endogenous mechanisms. Thus, optical illusions neither "trick the eye" nor "fool the brain". The talk will interactively present demonstrations of these processes, organized along with the visual dimension luminance, color, motion, space, and gestalt.</span><br></div><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><br></div><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black"><b><br></b></span></div><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black"><b>Starbursts: their nature, origin, and visual importance presented by Larry Thibos</b></span><br></div><p style="margin:0px"></p><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">Starbursts, an entoptic phenomenon that has been observed and recorded throughout history, are dim lines that appear to radiate from stars and planets when viewed against the night sky. Psychophysical experiments, combined with optical analysis, indicate that starbursts are the subjective manifestation of light caustics formed on the retina by the eye's optical aberrations. Starbursts have special relevance to visual astronomy because they reduce the visibility of celestial objects and hamper the spatial resolution of neighboring objects (e.g., the recent conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn).</span><br></div><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black"><br></span></div><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:13.32px;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black"><br></span></div><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:13.32px;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">Please contact Vyas Akondi (<a href="mailto:vakondi@stanford.edu">vakondi@stanford.edu</a>), Chair of the OSA Vision Technical Group, if you have any questions.</span><br></div><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"></p></div><p style="margin:0px"><br></p><p style="margin:0px"><br></p><p style="margin:0px"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">Vyas Akondi, PhD</span><br></p><p style="margin:0px"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">Chair, OSA Vision Technical Group</span><br></p><p style="margin:0px"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">Senior Research Scientist</span><br></p></div><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:15px;line-height:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(32,31,30)"><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><div dir="ltr" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:inherit"><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:10pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:black">Stanford University</span></p></div></div></div></div></div>