Shared Resources

The administrative offices of the Center for Visual Science are located on the second floor of Meliora Hall, which also houses the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Clustered around the administrative offices are the two CVS conference rooms, the CVS library, a computer user room, and other shared facilities described below. This area also contains laboratories of 10 CVS faculty. The laboratories of the other faculty are located in the Medical Center and Computer Science, both within easy walking distance.

CVS has a long-standing practice of sharing resources, a practice that particularly benefits our students by extending their access to technical personnel and to research facilities beyond those any single laboratory could support. Many of these resources are provided, at least in part, by an NEI Core Grant to CVS, which supports continuing development of new resources to be shared among CVS researchers. The major resources currently available in CVS are described below:

experiment demonstration Copyright © 2003 Center for Visual Science. All rights reserved. NIH Resource for Studying Complex Visuomotor Behavior: This laboratory (directed by Dana Ballard and Mary Hayhoe) contains state-of-the art equipment for simulating complex 3D visual scenes and monitoring numerous types of motor behavior for use in experimental studies of complex human behavior. The major components of the lab are (1) an SGI multi-processor Onyx computer (2) a virtual-reality head-mounted display, (3) a Polhemus Fastrak 3-SPACE motion tracking system, (4) a driving simulator mounted on a 6 degree of freedom motion platform, (5) two extended-range Phantom (SensAble Technologies) haptic feedback devices for providing force feedback to the finger and thumb during manual interactions with simulated objects in a virtual display, (6) a head-mounted eye-tracker (ASL 1500) and (7) robotic devices to simulate human behavior. The lab is available for use by faculty and student investigators within CVS as well as visitors from outside the university.

Center for Adaptive Optics: The University of Rochester is a participant in a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center, the Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO), which is in the first of 5 years of funding. CfAO is a consortium of university and industrial partners funded by NSF to develop advanced optical technologies for astronomy and vision research. CfAO sponsors free workshops and summer courses that provide an opportunity for vision science graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to learn about state-of-the-art optical technologies. David Williams is Associate Director of the Center overseeing 12/17/2007 which includes researchers from the University of Houston and Indiana University.

The Williams lab developed the first adaptive optics system for the human eye. This system, now in its second generation, is a shared resource accessible to investigators both within and outside CVS. It allows nearly complete correction of the aberrations of the human eye and can be used both for imaging the retina at a microscopic scale and for improving methods to correct vision.

Patient Psychophysics Facility: William Merigan directs a psychophysical testing facility optimized for use with patients, such as those who have suffered strokes. The facility contains a display system run by a Power Macintosh computer and an eyetracking system (EyeScan) for monitoring gaze.

Eye-tracker Copyright © 2003 Center for Visual Science. All rights reserved. Eye Movement Recording Facility: Meliora Hall houses two dual Purkinje image eyetrackers, which allows precise measurement of eye movements and accommodation in humans, as well as image stabilization. Another communal room houses an ASL 1500 head-mounted eye-tracker which supports head-free gaze-monitoring.

Histology Lab: The histology lab supported by the Core grant provides equipment and technical support for brain and eye tissue processing and analysis. The lab contains a Microm sliding microtome, a Jung biocut rotary microtome, an Olympus microscope with a Prior motorized stage, and a video camera with microscope attachment for high resolution capturing and processing of microscope images. The core grant also supports a full-time histology lab technician to maintain the facility and process brain and eye tissue as well as any other histological tissues that are needed.

Animal Facilities: CVS members have access to two vivaria. Both are well-equipped for the housing and care of mammals used in vision research. The facilities and programs of the Vivarium and Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine are fully accredited by the American Association of Laboratory Animal Care. The facilities are staffed by two full-time veterinarians, several animal technicians, and other specialized support personnel.

fMRI facility Copyright © 2003 Center for Visual Science. All rights reserved. Brain Imaging Facilities: Seven researchers in the department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences have been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation and from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to form the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging (RCBI). Brain images from this facility not only reveal minute anatomical structures, but also which portions of the brain are active as participants perform a variety of tasks. The RCBI is located in a combination of new and renovated space in the Annex, a building located next to the power plant and between the River Campus and the Medical Center. Renovations were completed by February of 2004. The 3 tesla Siemens magnet housed in the RCBI will be available for basic and clinical research by any member of the University faculty, as well as by partner researchers from Cornell University, RIT, and SUNY-Geneseo.

Electron Microscope Facility: The Medical Center maintains an electron microscope facility that is available to members of CVS. It has an Hitachi 7100 Transmission Electron Microscope with complete digital interface. The facility includes 2 darkrooms, computers, a scanner, a color printer, and a fully equipped wet lab for pre- and post-embedding immuno-EM. A scanning electron microscope is also available for projects requiring surface imaging. The facility is overseen by a full-time electron microscopist / histologist and provides full-service experiments for a nominal fee.

Light Measuring Equipment: CVS shares a variety of photometric and radiometric instruments. The most notable of these is a Photo Research SpectraColorimeter, a portable instrument that can measure reflectance spectra of natural surfaces across the entire visible spectrum with high precision and speed.

Electrode manufacturing equipment: CVS has a high-temperature tip puller with a helium-filled chamber for pulling of quartz fibers with platinum/tungsten core and a precision diamond grinding disk. The electrode is fixed on a precise 1-dimensional translation sledge with micro-motor for holding and rotating the electrode during grinding.

Computing lab Copyright © 2003 Center for Visual Science. All rights reserved. CVS Computing: CVS has a full-time systems manager and three full-time programmers for consultation, applications programming, systems maintenance, and network administration. The Center maintains a number of servers in-house that provide various services to the department including E-mail, website hosting, FTP sites, electronic calendaring, and centralized computer backups. It also has a room dedicated to the shared computing needs of CVS members. The room has three computers featuring a variety of image scanning devices. Also available for use are high-resolution Hewlett-Packard black-and-white and color laser printers. The center owns a number of laptop computers, portable data projectors, and portable storage devices which can be borrowed by CVS members and used as needed, either in their research or to make presentations.

CVS library Copyright © 2003 Center for Visual Science. All rights reserved. CVS Library: In addition to the University Library system, CVS maintains its own library in Meliora Hall. It provides CVS members with convenient access to frequently-used reference books in the visual sciences as well as collections of the most relevant journals (e.g., Vision Research, Journal of Neuroscience, Nature, Nature Neuroscience, JOSA A).

Search the web catalog for the CVS library

Kresge room lecture Copyright © 2003 Center for Visual Science. All rights reserved. CVS Conference Room: Besides the laboratories of the principal investigators, the CVS Conference Room is the most important site for training activities. The weekly Research Meeting, the Colloquium Series, most graduate courses, and informal discussions over lunch are held here. The room is equipped with dual slide projectors, a video projector and an Epson video projector that can be connected to the VCR or a computer. CVS also has a second, smaller conference room for lab meetings, CVS committee meetings and other small, informal gatherings.

Electronics Shop: CVS has an electronics shop staffed by two full time engineers who are available to CVS members for consultation, circuit design and construction, and interfacing tasks.

Machine Shop: The university maintains a fully equipped machine shop staffed by one full-time and four on-call machinists. For optical needs, CVS members have access to the University's Optical Fabrication and Testing Facility. Researchers can enlist the aid of the machinist and/or have direct access to the shop itself.