astronomy

Leon Harmon

Leon Harmon is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Leon Harmon rather than just read about it. In short: Leon D. Harmon (1922–1983) was a researcher in mental/neural processing, particularly regarding vision, who worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated.

Key takeaways

Leon Harmon belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Leon Harmon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Leon Harmon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Leon D. Harmon (1922–1983) was a researcher in mental/neural processing, particularly regarding vision, who worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated. Harmon started his career as a radio serviceman and electronics hobbyist. In 1950, he went to work as a wireman on the IAS machine at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he worked for Julian Bigelow and encountered John von Neumann and Albert Einstein. At the same time he began taking night courses in engineering at New York University. When the IAS project ended in 1956, he joined Bell Laboratories where he worked on human perception, computer vision and graphics. In 1966, Harmon and Kenneth C. Knowlton were experimenting with photomosaic, creating large prints from collections of small symbols or images. In Studies in Perception I they created an image of a reclining nude (the dancer Deborah Hay), by scanning a photograph with a camera and converting the analog voltages to binary numbers which were assigned typographic symbols based on halftone densities. It was printed in The New York Times on 11 October 1967, and exhibited as part of the Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT) competition at, The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age, held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City from November 25, 1968 through February 9, 1969. Knowlton characterized it as a "sophomoric prank." Harmon is best known for his highly pixelated, block portrait of Abraham Lincoln from the five dollar bill. It was created to illustrate his November, 1973, Scientific American article, "The Recognition of Faces." In 1976, Salvador Dalí used Harmon's image as the basis of his Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea and Lincoln in Dalivision. Around 1973, Harmon went to the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, and became the head of that department. During this time, he conducted studies on facial recognition, as well as robotic control. He supervised one graduate student, Thomas F. Collura, who received his Ph.D. in 1978 for studying brainwave (EEG) signatures of attention in human subjects, using an analog computer. Harmon served in the department, having stepped down as head in 1976 to become professor, until his passing in 1983.

Publications Goldstein, A. J., Harmon, L. D. and Lesk, A. B. (1971). Identification of Human Faces. Proceedings of the IEEE, 59(5):748-760. Goldstein, A. J., Harmon, L. D. and Lesk, A. B. (1972). Man-Machine Interaction in Human-Face Identification. Bell Syst. Tech. J., 51(2):399-427. Harmon, L. D. (1972). Automatic Recognition of Print and Script. Proceedings of the IEEE (60), No. 10, October 1972, pp. 1165–1177. K. Knowlton and L. Harmon, "Computer-Produced Greyscales," Computer Graphics and Image Processing No. 1, 1972, pp. 1–20. Harmon, L. D. and Julesz, B. (1973). Masking in Visual Recognition: Effects of Two-Dimensional Filtered Noise. Science (1973 Jun 15) 180:1194–1197 Harmon, L. D. (1973). The Recognition of Faces. Scientific American (1973 Nov) 229(5):71-82 Harmon, L. D., Kuo, S. C., Ramig, P.F. and Raudkivi, U. (1978): Identification of human face profiles by computer. Pattern Recognition 10(5-6): 301-312 Harmon, L. D. and Hunt, W. F. (1978). Automatic Recognition of Human Face Profiles. Computer Graphics and Image Processing, 6(2):135-156. Harmon, L. D., Khan, M. K., Lasch, R., and Ramig, P.F. (1981). Machine Identification of Human Faces. Pattern Recognition, 13(2):97-110.

References

External links Computer Oral History Collection Pioneers of New Media Leon Harmon Bar Code Art "Leon Harmon and Ken Knowlton, 'Studies in Perception', 1997 - in detail". Prints & Books. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 2011-03-24.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Leon Harmon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Leon Harmon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Leon Harmon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Leon Harmon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Leon Harmon

In research: Leon Harmon appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Leon Harmon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Leon Harmon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1922 births, 1983 deaths, Case Western Reserve University faculty, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Leon Harmon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Leon Harmon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Leon Harmon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Leon Harmon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Leon Harmon in simple terms?

Leon D. Harmon (1922–1983) was a researcher in mental/neural processing, particularly regarding vision, who worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated.

Why does Leon Harmon matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Leon Harmon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Leon Harmon.