In the 1950s, Barlow and Attneave hypothesised a link between biological vision and information maximisation. Following Shannon, information was defined using the probability of natural images. A number of physiological and psychophysical phenomena have been derived ever since from principles like info-max, efficient coding, or optimal denoising. However, it remains unclear how this link is expressed in mathematical terms from image probability. First, classical derivations were subjected to strong assumptions on the probability models and on the behaviour of the sensors. Moreover, the direct evaluation of the hypothesis was limited by the inability of the classical image models to deliver accurate estimates of the probability. In this work we directly evaluate image probabilities using an advanced generative model for natural images, and we analyse how probability-related factors can be combined to predict human perception via sensitivity of state-of-the-art subjective image quality metrics. We use information theory and regression analysis to find a combination of just two probability-related factors that achieves 0.8 correlation with subjective metrics. This probability-based sensitivity is psychophysically validated by reproducing the basic trends of the Contrast Sensitivity Function, its suprathreshold variation, and trends of the Weber-law and masking.

During lockdowns and social-distancing restrictions, the Charlotte, N.C.-based company said it saw an uptick in customers using its AI-based virtual assistant, Erica, online money-transfer service Zelle and mobile check deposit, among other digital services. The bank's technology and business executives spoke about the company's digital growth at a virtual event on Monday, and said they're exploring more ways to innovate and keep pace with the demand for its technology. The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. "Digital demand is here to stay. That's not going away…now the question is how can we serve (customers) in more ways," said Aditya Bhasin, chief information officer for consumer, small business and wealth management at the bank.

I'm happy to announce that Malo Bourgon, formerly a program management analyst at MIRI, has taken on a new leadership role as our chief operating officer. As MIRI's second-in-command, Malo will be taking over a lot of the hands-on work of coordinating our day-to-day activities: supervising our ops team, planning events, managing our finances, and overseeing internal systems. He'll also be assisting me in organizational strategy and outreach work. Prior to joining MIRI, Malo studied electrical, software, and systems engineering at the University of Guelph in Ontario. His professional interests included climate change mitigation, and during his master's, he worked on a project to reduce waste through online detection of inefficient electric motors.