Science Talks 6 (2023) 100180

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Science Talks
journal homepage: www.elsevier.es/sctalk

A device for mass generation of psychophysics data to train and test models
of flicker fusion
Keerthi S. Chandran , Kuntal Ghosh
⁎
Center for Soft Computing Research, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The work describes an Arduino controlled device that could generate mass psychophysics data on flicker fusion from
Visual psychophysics an individual subject. The device generates photic pulses of red, green or blue lights in a controlled waveform with de-
Flicker fusion sired luminance in a circular aperture. The device has a keypad to record subject response. The device controls dark
Photic pulses adaptation by turning on a floodlight in the room in between the readings. The device has been calibrated to find
Brain computational models
the luminance value from a voltage measurement as well The device has been used to calculate psychophysics data
Experimental psychology
on flicker fusion for photic pulses of varying Pulse to Cycle Fractions (PCFs) and time periods using both binary search
method and method of constant stimulus. The device can generate photic pulses with alternate pulses having different
luminance values and colors. The mass psychophysics data generated by the device could be used for training and test-
ing brain computational models.

Video to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/

j.sctalk.2023.100180.

List of Figures

Fig. 1. The device. The left side picture shows the device with no lights on and the right side picture shows the device with green light on.

⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: keerthischandran@gmail.com (K.S. Chandran).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sctalk.2023.100180
Received 15 December 2022; Received in revised form 16 February 2023; Accepted 7 March 2023
Available online xxxx
2772-5693/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
K.S. Chandran, K. Ghosh Science Talks 6 (2023) 100180

Fig. 2. A diagrammatic representation of PCF. Three time series with the same frequency but different PCFs are shown. The first diagram shows a photic pulse representation
with PCF ¼. It means ¼ of the light is on and light is off for ¾ of the time.

Fig. 3. The subject responses were recorded with a keypad. The subject presses the left button if the subject perceives the stimulus as flickering and right button if the subject
does not.

Fig. 4. The device and keypad set in front of the chin rest. The subject takes recordings in a dark room.

2
K.S. Chandran, K. Ghosh Science Talks 6 (2023) 100180

Fig. 5. LEDs used in the instrument. The light from the LEDs fell on a white acrylic sheet which diffuses light. The acrylic sheet is covered with opaque material with a circular
aperture of diameter ~14.5 mm. The luminance will be uniform at all points in the aperture.

Fig. 6. The constant voltage source and a post office box used as variable resistance. One end of the post office box is connected to transistors and other to the LEDs. The
current through LEDs can be changed by changing resistance in the post office box.

Fig. 7. The arduino used to control signal to LEDs and a rheostat used as another variable resistance.

3
K.S. Chandran, K. Ghosh Science Talks 6 (2023) 100180

Fig. 8. The switches to select the sub circuit for LEDs to the ground. The red, green and blue cathodes could be connected to either of the two subcircuits in the circuit. The
subcircuits consist of a set of 2N222 transistors connected in parallel, along with a variable resistance in series.

Fig. 9. Floodlight used to prevent dark adaptation. The experiments are done in a dark room. The floodlight provides an illumination ~600 lux at the position of the eye.

4
K.S. Chandran, K. Ghosh Science Talks 6 (2023) 100180

Fig. 10. The relationship between resistance in the post office box connected in series with LEDs and potential difference across a 100 Ω resistance in series with an LED.

Fig. 11. Relation between voltage across the 100 ohm resistance and luminance at the position of eye. The luminance was measured with a Gossen Mavospot luminance
meter. The median value of five luminances measured for a voltage has been plotted.

Fig. 12. Psychophysics data generated by binary search method for green light at luminance ~1003 cd/m2.
Legends Flicker, Steady, Threshold via binary search method.

5
K.S. Chandran, K. Ghosh Science Talks 6 (2023) 100180

Fig. 13. Psychophysics data generated by method of constant stimulus.

Legends Flicker, Steady, Threshold via binary search method.

Fig. 14. Psychophysics data from repetition of the method of constant stimulus on the same set of stimuli.
Legends Flicker, Fused, Threshold via binary search method.

6
K.S. Chandran, K. Ghosh Science Talks 6 (2023) 100180

Fig. 15. Common data points for psychophysics readings for luminance ~1003 cd/m2 for green light on a single subject on two different days. The subject classified 113 data
points as flicker and 102 data points as fused on both the days. Subject classified 13 data points differently.
Legends Flicker, Fused, Different subject response , Threshold via binary search method.

Fig. 16. The ROC curve for the threshold obtained by binary search method. Its performance was tested on the two sets of readings and their common data points. The
threshold does a better work in classifying the datapoints that were common on both days, as it has a slightly bigger area under the curve.

Fig. 17. Photic pulses of different luminance in the same train.

7
K.S. Chandran, K. Ghosh
Fig. 18. Photic pulses of different colors in the same train.
List of videos
1. An example flicker stimulus. Flicker stimulus is a light source of inter-
mittent illumination
2. Subject is able to see only the stimulus in the dark room. Subject
presses a button on the keypad according the perception of the stimuli.
The subject responses get printed on the computer. The floodlight is
then immediately turned on for four seconds. It is then switched off
for 2 s and a new signal is generated. The process gets continued for
the next signal.
3. The switches used to select signals to the base of transistors. The signal
could be a constant 5 V source from the Arduino or a pin of Arduino
programmed to give the desired digital signal. The switches can also
be turned off.
4. The stimulus changes between a constantly on stimulus, a constantly
off stimulus and a flickering stimulus as per position of the SPDT
switch. Calibrations and measurements of physical parameters can be
done after keeping the light constantly on.
5. The potential difference across the 100 Ω resistance changes with the
change of resistance of the rheostat.
6. The luminance of a constant stimulus changes with change in resis-
tance in the rheostat.
7. For measurement via binary search method, device starts measurement
on a random PCF 16/20. Initially the midpoint is 36 ms. The device
generates stimulus with values of midpoint timeperiod and PCF. The
subject then makes the classification via button press. The upper and
lower time periods as well as midpoint are then updated as per the
algorithm. The process continues till upper and lower search boundary
differs by 1 millisecond. The device then moves onto another PCF and
repeats the process. Light is of green color with luminance 1003 cd/m2.
8. The device algorithm for measuring psychophysics data via method of
constant stimulus. Light is of green color with luminance 1003 cd/m2.
The threshold values detected by binary search method were used as
the threshold. The stimuli were generated in a totally random order.
9. We assume the responses classified as flicker as positive and those as
fused as negative. We then check the performance of the threshold
found by binary search method, in classifying the stimuli for the data
of first set of readings obtained via method of constant stimulus. The
datapoints above the threshold are classified as positive and those
below the threshold are classified as negative. The number of true pos-
itives, true negatives, false positives and false negatives for each posi-
tion of the threshold are shown in the video.
10. Photic pulses of different luminance in the same train.
11. Photic pulses of different colors in the same train.
8
Science Talks 6 (2023) 100180
CRediT author statement
Keerthi S Chandran: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software,
Writing. Kuntal Ghosh: Supervision.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the help of Mr. Shibsankar Roy,
Project Linked Person at the Laboratory for Cognitive Systems and Cyber-
netics, Machine Intelligence Unit at Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata in
the construction of the instrument.
Funding
Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
Declaration of interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial inter-
ests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the
work reported in this paper.
References
[1] P. Wallisch, et al., Psychophysics, MATLAB for Neuroscientists, Elsevier 2014,
pp. 173–191, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-383836-0.00008-4.
[2] S.W. Link, Psychophysical theory and laws, history of, International Encyclopedia of the
Social & Behavioral Sciences 2001, pp. 12439–12444, https://doi.org/10.1016/b0-08-
043076-7/00676-8.
[3] J.Z. Levinson, Flicker fusion phenomena, Science 160 (3823) (1968) 21–28 , American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.
160.3823.21.
[4] S.H. Bartley, Some factors influencing critical flicker frequency, J. Psychol. 46 (1)
(1958) 107–115, Informa UK Limited https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1958.
9916274.
[5] M. Liu, Y. Yan, Q. Xue, L. Gong, The research and analysis of factors affecting critical
flicker frequency, Proc. Manuf. 3 (2015) 4279–4286, Elsevier BV https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.promfg.2015.07.417.
[6] C. Landis, Determinants of the critical flicker-fusion threshold, Physiol. Rev. 34 (2)
(1954) 259–286, American Physiological Society https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.
1954.34.2.259.
[7] T.P. Lee, Effect of junction capacitance on the rise time of LED’s and on the turn-on delay
of injection lasers, Bell Syst. Tech. J. 54 (1) (1975) 53–68 , Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE). https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1975.tb02825.x.
K.S. Chandran, K. Ghosh Science Talks 6 (2023) 100180

[8] Y.A. Badamasi, The working principle of an Arduino, 2014 11th International Confer- Kuntal Ghosh received his PhD degree from Jadavpur Univer-
ence on Electronics, Computer and Computation (ICECCO). 2014, IEEE, 2014. sity while working as a Research Scholar at the Saha Institute of
https://doi.org/10.1109/icecco.2014.6997578. Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India, from where he received a Post-
[9] A. Lin, Binary search algorithm, Wiki J. Sci. 2 (1) (2019) 5 , WikiJournal User Group MSc Diploma in Biophysical Sciences. He received MSc & BSc
https://doi.org/10.15347/wjs/2019.005. degrees in Physics from University of Calcutta studying at the
[10] Method of Constant Stimuli, Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg Presidency College, Kolkata, India. Kuntal Ghosh is an associate
2009, p. 2347, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_3464. professor at Center for Soft Computing Research in Indian
[11] N. Kriegeskorte, P.K. Douglas, Cognitive computational neuroscience, Nat. Neurosci. 21 Statistical India, Kolkata India.
(9) (2018) 1148–1160, Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://doi.org/10.
1038/s41593-018-0210-5.
[12] I. Goodfellow, Y. Bengio, A. Courville, Deep Learning (Adaptive Computation and
Machine Learning Series) (Illustrated), The MIT Press, 2016.
[13] N. Kriegeskorte, Deep Neural Networks: A new framework for modeling biological
vision and brain information processing, Ann. Rev. Vision Sci. 1 (2015) 1 , 417–446.
Annual Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-vision-082114-035447.

Keerthi S Chandran received his Integrated MSc degree in

Physical Sciences with a major in Physics from the Visva-
Bharati University, Santiniketan, India. He is currently working
on his doctoral degree at the Center for Soft Computing
Research, being associated with the Laboratory for Cognitive
Systems and Cybernetics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata,
India.