Two-Photon Microscopy

Our regular reader RocketRoo has recently contributed an interesting comment to the post on non-local realism of last April. A long time has past since then, and as this comment is more of a two-post than a comment, I am taking the liberty to repost it here. This is the first part:

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A very interesting example of non-local realism appears in the paper entitled, "Two-Photon Microscopy: Shedding Light on the Chemistry of Vision," (Biochemistry 2007, v46, 9674-9684) . Since it is written by chemists, the going is a little tough in parts, so here are some way-points for the interested reader:

TPEM: TWO-PHOTON EXCITATION MICROSCOPY

Fluorescence typically involves single photon production from a particular atomic transition in either inorganic or organic materials. TPEM relies on dual simultaneous photo-production. The key point is that, unlike ordinary fluorescence microscopy, TPEM enables 3-D imaging of living tissues and has the potential to allow noninvasive study of biochemical processes in vivo. For more details, see http://www.fz-juelich.de/inb/inb-1//Two-Photon_Microscopy/

The TPEM effect was predicted in 1930 by Max Born's (female) student, Maria Göppert-Mayer.

TPEM circumvents the high phototoxicity and the limited penetration depth of UV light. In addition, imaging using two-photon excitation sidesteps the need for expensive optics optimized for UV excitation and suffers less from chromatic aberration problems.

Phototoxicity and fluorophore bleaching can sometimes present a significant problem for confocal microscopy, as the intense light is shone repeatedly through the specimen. Since 1990, TPEM has revolutionized the (in vivo) study of biological structure and function by exciting fluorophores in biological specimens through the simultaneous absorption of two IR photons. This is achieved by focusing an infrared laser beam (700—1100 nm) on the specimen, so that the high concentration of photons at the focal plane substantially increases the probability of the simultaneous absorption of two photons by a molecule of the fluorophore. In TPEM, the requirement of a high infrared light intensity necessitates the use of a laser (e.g., Ti:Saph). The near-IR and red (600-700 nm) regions are considered to be the “optical window” of cells and tissues.

A variant of TPEM called Second harmonic Imaging Microscopy (SHIM). SHIM refers to the induction of a nonlinear polarization by the incident light that results in the production of photons at half the wavelength. This effect seems remarkably similar to the production of type-II entangled photons by spontaneous down-conversion. (See non-local realism discussion above).

Collagen and elastin emit enough fluorescence to provide suitable contrast for imaging. In the case of the eye, SHIM imaging has been used to investigate the organization of the collagen in the cornea and the sclera.

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Credits: RocketRoo

Selfhood and video collaboration

The sense of being outside of one's physical body (an out-of-body experience) has generally fallen within the realms of neurological dysfunction, either organic or pharmacologically aided, or of paranormal phenomena. The advent of virtual reality has offered a noninvasive and reproducible approach to inducing out-of-body experiences in normal subjects. Head-mounted displays were used to demonstrate that subjects would reliably report the sensation of inhabiting a virtual body, from which vantage point they would be looking at themselves. In addition, they reacted autonomically in response to harm directed at their virtual body and displaced their bodily sense of self toward their doppelganger and away from their physical body.

Fourteen years ago I had the opportunity to experience most virtual reality (VR) systems developed by various companies here in the Silicon Valley. The displays in the goggles or helmets were very crude, with low resolution and washed out colors. The refresh rate was very low and lagged behind my motions by a second or so. Finally, the machines running the models were able to compute only primitive scenes. The result was that the systems made me sick and I had to get out.

I also had the chance to try out the system in Canon's Artlab in Roppongi, which was using an SGI Reality Engine for each eye and a third system to manage the model. It still took me a while to get used and I had to grab for the handrail.

So much for 1993.

Today, one of HP's most spectacular products is the Halo Collaboration Studio, also called HP's Time Machine by the marketing people. The key feature is that it creates an illusion of telepresence by mirroring the two studios. Because travel has become so painful and concomitantly companies have slashed travel budgets, there is a strong demand for high quality video collaboration systems.

Where are we today? VR systems have gotten so good that they can be used to create out-of-body experiences. Science magazine of 24 August 2007 has two articles and a perspective on the state of current research. The illusory self-localization to a position outside one's body shows that bodily self-consciousness and selfhood can be dissociated from one's physical body position.

However, we are still far from teleporting our selfhood across the Internet.

• Out-of-Body Experiences Enter the Laboratory, Science 24 August 2007: Vol. 317. no. 5841, pp. 1020 - 1021 DOI: 10.1126/science.317.5841.1020a
• The Experimental Induction of Out-of-Body Experiences, Science 24 August 2007: Vol. 317. no. 5841, p. 1048 DOI: 10.1126/science.1142175
• Video Ergo Sum: Manipulating Bodily Self-Consciousness, Science 24 August 2007: Vol. 317. no. 5841, pp. 1096 - 1099 DOI: 10.1126/science.1143439

Mini review. Snakes in suits

This is the third review in this series I am calling 301.7—terrorism @ home, and as promised it is about the workplace. In the previous two reviews we visited The sociopath next door and Without conscience. In science, the Nineties were the decade of the brain, and so much progress was made—think for example functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)—Dr. Hare's latest book, written with Dr. Babiak, gives us a much more precise picture of the psychopath than Without conscience. Yet, there is still no other cure than capital punishment while concomitantly we have made our organizations more inviting for psychopaths.

Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work should be required reading for all executives, but everybody who did not drop out of society should also study it slowly and carefully. You get your money's worth when you buy this book, because you get actually two books: an updated version of the relevant content of Without conscience and a manager's guide on how to avoid that your organization becomes another Enron (Drs. Bobiak and Hare quote this pearl from Enron's 1998 annual report: "We do not tolerate abusive or disrespectful treatment. Ruthlessness, callousness, and arrogance don't belong here.")

Let's start with the research in psychopathy. Although as I mentioned above there is still no cure other than capital punishment, there are now many hundreds of researchers working in this field, compared to a few academics and forensic psychiatrists when Cleckley wrote The Mask of Sanity. There is now even a Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy (SSSP).

Yet, there is still confusion even in the name of this personality disorder. Although the terms psychopathy, sociopathy, and antisocial personality disorder are still used interchangeably, this latest book now makes the following distinction:

Psychopathy

A personality disorder described by the personality traits and behaviors that form the basis of Snakes in Suits. Psychopaths are without conscience and incapable of empathy, guilt, or loyalty to anyone but themselves.

Sociopathy

This is not a formal psychiatric condition. It refers to patterns of attitudes and behaviors that are considered antisocial and criminal by society at large, but are seen as normal or necessary by the subculture or social environment in which they developed. Sociopaths may have a well-developed conscience and a normal capacity for empathy, guilt, and loyalty, but their sense of right and wrong is based on the norms and expectations of their subculture or group. Many criminals might be described as sociopaths.

Antisocial personality disorder (APD)

This is a broad diagnostic category found in the DSM. Antisocial and criminal behaviors play a major role in its definition, and, in this sense, APD is similar to sociopathy. Some of those with APD are psychopaths, but many are not. The difference between psychopathy and APD is that the former includes personality traits such as lack of empathy, grandiosity, and shallow emotion that are not necessary for diagnosis of APD. APD is three to four times more common than psychopathy in the general population and in prisons. The prevalence of those we would describe as sociopathic is unknown but likely is considerably higher than that of APD.

The new results include that the number of psychopaths in the normal population is about 1%, and in the prison population they make up about 15%. When we do the math, the number of APDs is 4%. The important new number is that among high-potential executives psychopaths make up 3.5%. The average PCL: SV (see below) score for corporate psychopaths was 19 (out of a top score of 24), which is well within the research range for psychopathy. In evaluating these findings, it is important to note that scores of at this level indicate the presence of enough psychopathic features to be problematic for the organization (p. 193).

If you think these numbers are small, consider that they are responsible for at least half of the persistent serious and violent crimes committed in North America. As for executives, the authors bring up Enron, who was able to infiltrate and manipulate the top levels in government, caused billions of damages to California's utility users, and financially ruined thousands of workers in the collapse of the company.

On a more positive note, the authors report and an improved version of the Psychopathy Checklist called PCL-R, and more importantly on a new Screening Version PCL: SV, which allows the quick scoring of subcriminal psychopaths by evaluating the domains and traits of the psychopath:

Interpersonal	Affective
The person is: superficial grandiose deceitful	The person: lacks remorse lacks empathy doesn't accept responsibility
Lifestyle	Antisocial
The person: is impulsive lacks goals is irresponsible	The person has a history of poor behavioral controls adolescent antisocial behavior adult antisocial behavior

The authors insist that scoring each item requires professional qualifications, adherence to the scoring instructions in the PCL: SV Manual, and access to extensive interview and collateral information. In particular, these traits are partially very similar to those with narcissistic personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder; aggressive or malignant narcissism being particularly difficult to distinguish from psychopathy. So, never ever call somebody a psychopath, because you have no way to know.

This is a bummer, because hopefully there will never be a law requiring psychopaths to wear a bell, yet they can kill us, or at least destroy our lives. Since this blog is on visual perception, if you think you might be a victim of a psychopath, your best bet may be to walk down the hall to a colleague with an fMRI machine and collaborate on an experiment. As these renderings from the paper Limbic abnormalities in affective processing by criminal psychopaths as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging [if this link fails, search the paper from the Library's site to get the full text] illustrate, psychopathy is easy to make out: the neural areas in which criminal psychopaths showed significantly less affect-related activity than noncriminal control subjects for the comparison of all affective phases versus all neutral phases from the random-effects analysis. Regions include (top left) posterior cingulate, caudal and rostral anterior cingulate, and ventral striatum (top right), right amygdala/hippocampus. Also shown are the regions in which criminal psychopaths showed greater affect-related activity than noncriminal control subjects and criminal nonpsychopaths. These regions include bilateral inferior frontal gyrus.

Alternatively, if you do psychophysics, you can also rig up a fake color naming experiment where you present the suspect with words made of random characters and ask the subject to hit a key when the random characters form a valid word. In the set of valid words, intermix color names with emotional words like rape, sex, love, mother, etc. Probit analysis will quickly tell you if the reaction time is the same for all words (you are probably dealing with a psychopath), or takes longer for the emotional words (the subject is likely not a psychopath).

The authors write that the number of people with psychopathic personalities suggests that most of us will come across at least one psychopath during a typical day (p. 37). Their skills make them difficult to detect, because first, they are motivated to, and have talent for, "reading people" and sizing them up quickly. They identify a person's likes and dislikes, motives, needs, weak spots, and vulnerabilities. We all have "buttons" that can be pushed, and psychopaths, more than most people, are always ready to push them. Second, many psychopaths come across as having excellent oral communications skills. In many cases these skills are more apparent than real because of their readiness to jump right into a conversation without the social inhibitions that hamper most people, especially scientists. In the great card game of life, psychopaths know what cards you hold, and they do cheat.

Snakes in Suits also has several references to new research showing that psychopathy has a strong hereditary component. It runs in families and psychopathic parents will certainly nurture the condition in their evil offspring. Not only is psychopathy a package (syndrome, see below), but psychopaths come in packages.

Even when the authors tell us not to jump to conclusions and label somebody as a psychopath, do not hesitate to use your skills as a scientist to unmask them and to use the mechanisms in your organization to exterminate them. For example, here in HP we have the Rules of Business Conduct (brochure) as an effective tool to keep our work environment psychopath-free.

In my view, the weakest point of Snakes in Suits is that it tells us to just stay away from psychopaths. As I argued in a previous post on research in transition, it is our duty towards the organization for which we work, and as members of the scientific elite of society, to have a zero tolerance attitude against psychopaths and to get them locked up. Do not just climb on the armoire and listen through the ceiling what the pyromanics are doing in the attic, as Biederman did!

Psychological "autopsies" have shown that even if family members, close friends, and associates had noticed that all was not right with these individuals, they would not necessarily have appreciated the potential significance of the information and might not have known how to act on it. Therefore, do not hesitate and read Snakes in Suits now to educate yourself before it is too late and your life is jeopardy.

If you chicken out, be prepared for the psychopath at work to take you through three phases: assessment, manipulation, and abandonment. In the first phase, upon hiring, the psychopath will seek out the pawns he or she can use to do their work. They also build connections to executive management (see p. 123) to hit their detractors from above when the shit hits the fan. In the manipulation phase, psychopaths use their uninhibited social skills to create chaos in the organization. In the last phase—abandonment—once you are no longer useful, you will just get dumped like an old rag.

How does the psychopath get you in a fatal bond? You have three selves. The first is you inner or private personality, all the good and bad you subjectively know about yourself. The second is your public self or persona, how you want others to see you. The third is your reputation—how others see you. The psychopath is a master in getting you to fully disclose your persona and will create a mask, your simulated persona he or she will put on to create the psychopathic bond. In the abandonment phase, the psychopath will fully destroy your reputation. No kidding!

The authors describe (p. 132) how the employees most at risk of being manipulated into covering for psychopaths, actually carrying out their workload in exchange for things that are not readily apparent at the time, are highly skilled specialists with poor social skills. The latter prevents them from having a successful career and the high skills allow them to cover for the psychopath with little effort. All the psychopath has to do, is to give them the little attention and praise of their work they are not getting from their managers.

In a chapter titled Darkness and Chaos, Drs. Babiak and Hare review how organizations have changed in the past 50 years. From the 1940s to the 1970s, the relation between organization and employees was based on a "psychological contract." During the late 1970s, teamwork replaced traditional command-and-control hierarchies, and employees were entrusted with the decisions affecting their own work and group decisions about needed business improvements often took precedence Then change became a key method to run a business (see also my first post on research in transition).

However, in the 1980s and the 1990s, the rate of change accelerated too quickly and there were too many changes at once. The "psychological contract" was challenged, and it gave way eventually to a world where the employee-employer relationship was seen as a transitory one rather than a long-term partnership.

Since the turn of the century the rate of change has increased exponentially, so that organizations now find themselves in a constant state of transitioning (p. 159). Organizations are now characterized by unclear, outdated, unenforceable, or nonexistent work rules and policies; inconsistent risk taking; greater tolerance for controversial, perhaps even abusive, behaviors; and antiquated measurement systems and communication networks. The leader's job becomes increasingly complex but far less well defined—itself a frustrating thing. Traditional strategic planning, organizing, and motivating skills are of limited use.

Today, employees are treated as individual contributors, responsible for their own career advancement, and organizations act rewarding them with large salaries for innovative, fast-paced problem solving—as well as the chance to continue to work on new, exciting projects. The symbiosis of employees with entrepreneurial talents and the transitioning organization can lead to the constant reinventing, rebuilding, and reenergizing that both need for survival and growth. If well managed, the results can be impressive.

The gist of the book is, that while the old "psychological contract" was a deterrent for psychopaths and relegated them into the penal system, the transitioning organizations have become psychopath friendly, a bonanza for the psychopath. Rapid business growth, increased downsizing, frequent reorganizations, mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures have inadvertently increased the number of attractive employment opportunities for individuals with psychopathic personalities—without the need for them to correct or change their psychopathic attitudes and behaviors (p.164).

These "entrepreneurial pretenders" capitalize on the lessened reliance on rules and policies and the increased need for free-form decision making that characterize organizations in a chaotic state. Because a leader's ability to get people to do things is often of more importance than his or her technical capabilities to perform work tasks, pretenders lacking in real work expertise are not disadvantaged; their talents are assumed and their phony or exaggerated backgrounds often accepted at face value.

The authors have identified three main "psychopathic styles" in these pretenders. The classic style consists of those with a high score on each of the psychopathy dimensions (see table above): interpersonal, affective, lifestyle, and antisocial. They exhibit virtually all the features that define psychopathy.

The manipulative style consists of those with a high score on the interpersonal and affective dimensions, and somewhat lower scores on the lifestyle and antisocial dimensions. They manipulate, deceive, and charm but are less impulsive and antisocial than the other types. They are talkers more than doers.

The macho style consists of those with a high score on the affective, lifestyle, and antisocial dimensions, and a low score on the interpersonal dimension. They are aggressive, bullying, and abrasive individuals, less charming and manipulative than the other types. They are doers more than talkers.

A cynical reader may state that in their dysfunctionality these psychopaths may actually have value for the transitioning organization. However, Drs. Babiak and Hare warn that we can safely say that those who believe that "psychopathy is good" clearly have not had much exposure to the real thing. The problem is that you cannot choose which psychopathic traits you want and ignore the others; psychopathy is a syndrome, that is, a package of related traits and behaviors that form the total personality of the individual. Unfortunately for business, the "good" traits often conceal the existence of the "bad" when it comes to a psychopath (p. 194).

Moreover, visionary thinking, the ability to conceptualize the future of the organization, is a complex skill requiring a broad perspective, the ability to integrate multiple points of view, and a talent for looking into the future—that is, to think strategically. Psychopaths are not good at establishing and working towards long-term strategic objectives; they are much more opportunistic. They can weave compelling stories about situations and events of which they know very little into superbly believable visions of the future.

Snakes in Suits contains comprehensive tips on interviewing job candidates. Even for those trained in the study of psychopaths, one of the problems that researchers who interview psychopaths face is losing control of the interview. Psychopaths avoid answering direct questions, but rather introduce topics into the conversation that are interesting to the interviewer. Before you know it, you are the one being interviewed and your plan is derailed. You lose sight of what the interview was about in the first place (p. 223).

Many individuals believe that they are good at telling if someone is lying or not. Few of us can really tell. Even those who are trained to detect lying and deception are not particularly good at it (p. 231).

The book concludes with explicit practical tips on what to do when you find a psychopath in your organization. Study them before you have that dooming encounter.

Interwoven in the book is a play presenting a comprehensive case study. It might be tempting to read it ahead of the book's meat, but I was glad I refrained, because the play has a surprise ending you can only appreciate is you have learned about psychopaths during your diligent study of the book.

Links mentioned in the comments:

• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15744871

Multiscale contrast enhancement

The latest print issue of Optical Engineering (June 2007) has an interesting paper on color image contrast enhancement based on mathematical morphology.

The authors use the CIE 1976 UCS diagram to convert the images to a luma-chroma representation. They use mathematical morphology on the Y plane, applying open and close operators to find the image's principal regions according to a morphological contrast criterion. They also have a second approach based on retinex theory, but using morphological operations instead of the usual family of Gaussian transformations. In the color channels they use the gravity center law to boost the contrast.

This paper can be found online in the SPIE Digital Library under the title "Morphological multiscale contrast approach for gray and color images consistent with human visual perception" or doi:10.1117/1.2749711.

Limits of visual awareness

When we briefly examine a scene visually, we can pay attention only to one color at a time. However, we can see it in multiple locations.

New research by Liqiang Huang et al. proves the unexpected fact that our rich visual experience appears to be a substantial overestimation of what we are actually perceiving. We think we are aware of a complex world of varied colors, shapes, and directions of motions, etc. but in fact in any given instant we can see only one color.

What we see is what we can retrieve from visual memory, which does not contain a single image or frame, but what we have perceived in a number of different instants. For example, if we consider a small number of colored monochrome disks on a neutral surface, then if they disks have all the same color, in an instant we can determine that color and the disk's position. If the disks are in more than a single color, then in an instant we can see the disk's locations, but not their colors.

The two experiments required to prove this are not simple and are reported in Science Magazine of 10 August 2007: Vol. 317. no. 5839, pp. 823 - 825. They require to determine what the informational content of any single momentary act of conscious perception is.

Links from the comments:

• Press release … http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/clutter-0821.html
• Matlab code … http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/37593
• Associated paper … http://www.journalofvision.org/7/2/17/Rosenholtz-2007-jov-7-2-17.pdf

Mini review. Without conscience

As mortgage investments are in crisis, I'll offer you my second mini review in the 301.7—terrorism @ home series, because you indicated in my post on risk management that all that is necessary is to understand the risks and hedge against them. Today's book among others briefly discusses the Savings & Loans crisis and what you learn from that may help you develop a proper risk management strategy for the current crisis, which has many similarities.

Dr. Robert D. Hare is the foremost expert in the antisocial personality disorder syndrome and his book Without conscience is accessible to us non-specialists. Dr. Hare wrote his book ten years before Dr. Stout wrote hers (see my previous post), so while the latter was influenced by the events of September 11, 2001, the former was written after the Desert Storm war in Iraq.

However, the books are completely different for more fundamental reasons. While Dr. Stout works with APD victims, Dr. Hare researches the psychopaths themselves, and therefore offers a diametrically opposite perspective. Again, also with this book you should not draw any quick conclusions about any person; instead you should read the book slowly and carefully so you can learn to protect yourself. [As a CYA, I am citing actual text in block quotes instead of paraphrasing it in a few words. For your convenience, each block quote has an anchor.]

Dr. Hare starts with electroencephalograms (EEG) that do not look human:

Everybody has met these people, been deceived and manipulated by them, and forced to live with or repair the damage they have wrought. These often charming—but always deadly—individuals have a clinical name: psychopaths. Their hallmark is a stunning lack of conscience; their game is self-gratification at the other person's expense. Many spend time in prison, but many do not. All take far more than they give.

Like Dr. Stout, also Dr. Hare is flabbergasted by the high incidence rate of this condition and by how physically close they are to us.

The most obvious expressions of psychopathy —but by no means the only ones—involve flagrant criminal violation of society's rules. Not surprisingly, many psychopaths are criminals, but many remain out of prison, using their charm and chamaleonlike abilities to cut a wide swath though society and leaving a wake of ruined lives behind them.

He then asks

is the psychopath mentally ill or simply a rule breaker who is perfectly aware of what he or she is doing?

The question is not just a semantic one; posed another way, it has immeasurable practical significance: Does the treatment or control of the psychopath rightly fall to mental health professionals or to the correctional system? Everywhere in the world, judges, social workers, lawyers, schoolteachers, mental health workers, doctors, correctional staff, and members of the general public need—whether they know it or not—the answer.

One important criterion is that

unlike psychotic individuals, psychopaths are rational and aware of what they are doing and why. Their behavior is the result of choice, freely exercised.

In other words, these individuals are not sick or insane and the correctional system has to deal with them.

By the way, the terms sociopath and psychopath are often used interchangeably. Some people prefer the former because it is less easy to be confused with psychotism or insanity. However, Dr. Hare makes a clear distinction between the two terms and does not consider them to be synonyms:

"antisocial personality disorder" refers primarily to a cluster of criminal and antisocial behaviors. The majority of criminals easily meet the criteria for such a diagnosis. "Psychopathy," on the other hand, is defined by a cluster of both personality traits and socially deviant behaviors. Most criminals are not psychopaths, and many of the individuals who manage to operate on the shady side of the law and remain out of prison are psychopaths. Keep this in mind if you have occasion to consult a clinician or counselor about a psychopath in your life. Make sure that he or she knows the difference between antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy.

Dr. Hare has developed a complex clinical diagnostic tool, the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL). The diagnosis is difficult, because psychopathy is a syndrome—a cluster of related symptoms. Anyway, the symptoms are:

Emotional/Interpersonal	Social deviance
glib and superficial egocentric and grandiose lack of remorse or guilt lack of empathy deceitful and manipulative shallow emotions	impulsive poor behavior controls need for excitement lack of responsibility early behavior problems adult antisocial behavior

As for lack of remorse or guilt, Dr. Hare notes

In an ironic twist, psychopaths frequently see themselves as the real victims.

And regarding shallow emotions he notes that

Laboratory experiments using biomedical recorders have shown that psychopaths lack the physiological responses normally associated with fear.

Given these two facets of the psychopath—feelings & relationship and social deviance—one could assume these people could not only become our neighbors next door but also terrorists who are jealous of our freedom and democracy. However, Dr. Hare notes that

it is […] unlikely that psychopaths would make good spies, terrorists, or mobsters, simply because their impulsiveness, concern only for the moment, and lack of allegiance to people or causes make them unpredictable, careless, and undependable—likely to be "loose cannons."

Thus psychopaths usually do not get along well with one another and operate individually. However, occasionally they can become partners in crime, and then

generally, one member of the pair is a "talker" who gets his or her way through charm, deceit, and manipulation, whereas the other is a "doer" who prefers direct action—intimidation and force. As long as their interests are complementary, they make a formidable pair.

An interesting perspective is how psychopaths see the PCL:

Recently, an ex-con offered me his opinion on the Psychopathy Checklist: he wasn't to impressed! Now middle-aged, he had spent most of his early adult life in prison, where he was once diagnosed as a psychopath. Here are his responses:

Glib and superficial—"What is negative about articulation skills?"

Egocentric and grandiose—"How can I attain something if I don't reach high?"

Lack of empathy—"Empathy toward an enemy is a sign of weakness."

Deceitful and manipulative—"Why be truthful to the enemy? All of us are manipulative to some degree. Isn't positive manipulation common?"

Shallow emotions—"Anger can lead to being labeled a psychopath."

Impulsive—"Can be associated with creativity, living in the now, being spontaneous and free."

Poor behavioral controls—"Violent and aggressive outbursts may be a defensive mechanism, a false front, a tool for survival in a jungle."

Need for excitement—"Courage to reject the routine, monotonous, or uninteresting. Living on the edge, doing things that are risky, exciting, challenging, living life to its fullest, being alive rather than dull, boring, and almost dead."

Lack of responsibility—"Shouldn't focus on human weaknesses that are common."

Early behavior problems and adult antisocial behavior—"Is a criminal record reflective of badness or non-conformity?"

Interestingly, he had nothing to say about Lack of remorse or guilt.

The main trait is, however, the lack of a conscience, hence the book's title.

We don't know why the conscience of the psychopath—if it exists at all—is so weak. However, we can make some reasonable guesses:

• Psychopaths have little aptitude for experiencing the emotional responses—fear and anxiety—that are the mainsprings of conscience.
• The "inner speech" of psychopaths lacks emotional punch.
• Psychopaths have a weak capacity for mentally "picturing" the consequences of their behavior

Like Dr. Stout, also Dr. Hare is very concerned of contemporary American society encouraging and glorifying many of these symptoms. He concludes

Are we unknowingly allowing a society to evolve that is the perfect breeding ground, and perhaps even a "killing field," for psychopaths? As our morning newspaper tells us, this question grows more pressing every day.

Some numbers he quotes are;

• On average, about 20% of male and female prison inmates are psychopaths.
• Psychopaths are responsible for more than 50% of the serious crimes committed.

A recent study by the FBI found that 44% of the offenders who killed a law enforcement officer on duty were psychopaths.

In a chapter on white-collar psychopaths, the author writes:

Grambling's ability to rationalize his behavior is typical of the attitude psychopaths have towards their victims. In addition to his wish to be "liked by everyone," his euphemistic view of himself as a "financial architect," and his "fear of losing face," he considered his crimes logical responses to frustration and pressure, or more the victim's fault than his own. "In Grambling's mind, anyone who is stupid enough to trust or believe him deserves the consequences," said [New York Assistant District Attorney] Rosner.

Your homework: reflect on the above paragraph every time you say "risk management."

To illustrate how difficult it is to diagnose a psychopath, Dr. Hare relates an anecdote of a personal experience he had with the organizer of a conference on crime here in California, who stole his honorarium:

Ironically, I had spent quite a bit of time with this man, at a luncheon held just before my talk and later in a bar. I detected nothing unusual or suspicious about him; my antenna failed to twitch in his presence. Would I have lent him money? Possibly. I do recall insisting that I pick up the bar tab. He wasn't wearing a bell around his neck!

In fact,

many psychopaths never go to prison or any other facility. They appear to function reasonably well—as lawyers, doctors, psychiatrists, academics, mercenaries, police officers, cult leaders, military personnel, businesspeople, writers, artists, entertainers, and so forth—without breaking the law, or at least without being caught and convicted. […]

Rather than refer to these individuals as successful psychopaths—after all, their success is often illusory and always at someone else's expense—I prefer to call them subcriminal psychopaths. Their conduct, although technically not illegal, typically violates conventional ethical standards, hovering just on the shady side of the law. Unlike people who consciously adopt a ruthless, greedy, and apparently unscrupulous strategy in their business dealings but who are reasonably honest and empathetic in other areas of their lives, subcriminal psychopaths exhibit much the same behaviors and attitudes in all areas of their lives. If they lie and cheat on the job—and get away with it or are even admired for it—they will lie and cheat in other areas of their lives.

Dr. Hare then elaborates on the victims of these white-collar psychopaths—victims who live in fear of retributions—and notes how only few of them become visible, like the tip of an iceberg. The others suffer in the dark.

Tragically these victims often cannot get other people to understand what they are going through. Psychopaths are very good at putting on a good impression when it suits them, and they often paint their victims as the real culprits. As one woman—the third wife of a 40 year old high school teacher—recently told me: "For five years he cheated on me, kept me living in fear, and forged checks on my personal bank account. But everyone, including my doctor and lawyer and my friends, blamed me for the problem. He had them so convinced that he was a great guy and that I was going mad, I began to believe it myself. Even when he cleaned out my bank account and ran off with a 17 year old student, a lot of people couldn't believe it, and some wanted to know what I had done to make him act so strangely."

Writing then about the corporate psychopath, Dr. Hare then goes into the S & L crisis, which

at the time of this writing, the projected cost to U.S. taxpayers of what has become known as the S & L bail-out approaches $1 trillion—more than the entire cost of the Vietnam War.

He then finally starts writing about what all this means for us average people who are just living a normal life and try to make a contribution to society.

The sad fact is that we are all vulnerable. Few people are such sophisticated and perceptive judges of human nature that they cannot be taken in by the machinations of a skilled and determined psychopath. Even those who study them are not immune; as I've indicated in previous chapters, my students and I are sometimes conned, even when aware that we're dealing with a probable psychopath.

In an analogy that is easy to understand for us color scientists, he notes that

the psychopath is like a color-blind person who sees the world in shades of grey but who has learned how to function in a colored world. He has learned that the light signal for "stop" is at the top of the traffic signal. When the color-blind person tells you he stopped at the red light, he really means he stopped at the top light. He has difficulty in discussing the color of things but may have learned all sorts of ways to compensate for this problem, and in some cases even those who know him well may not know that he cannot see colors.

Like the color-blind person, the psychopath lacks an important element of experience—in this case, emotional experience—but may have learned the words that others use to describe or mimic experiences that he cannot really understand. As Cleckley put it, "He can learn to use ordinary words … [and] will also learn to reproduce appropriately all the panthomime of feeling … but the feeling itself does not come to pass."

Recent laboratory research provides convincing support for these clinical observations.

However, there is a twist:

Psychopaths are notorious for not answering the questions posed to them or for answering in a way that seems unresponsive to the question. […] Psychopaths also sometimes make it difficult for their listeners to understand parts of their narrative.

And

We are sucked in not by what they say but by how they say it and by the emotional buttons they push while saying it.

As for the moral stance we should take, Dr. Hare writes

psychopaths do meet current legal and psychiatric standards for sanity. They understand the rules of society and the conventional meanings of right and wrong. They are capable of controlling their behavior, and they are aware of the potential consequences of their acts. Their problem is that this knowledge frequently fails to deter them from antisocial behavior.

[…] In my opinion, psychopaths certainly know enough about what they are doing to be held accountable for their actions.

About their modus operandi he then teaches us

Psychopaths tend to see any social exchange as a "feeding" opportunity, a contest, or a test of wills, in which there can be only one winner. Their motives are to manipulate and take, ruthlessly and without remorse.

[…] Although psychopaths may talk a lot, they are not necessarily skilled wordsmiths. It is primarily the "show," not eloquent use of language, that attracts our attention and cons us. Good looks, a touch of charisma, a flood of words, contrived distractions, a knack for knowing which buttons to press—all these can go a long way toward obscuring the fact that the psychopathic presentation is nothing more than a "line." A good-looking, fast-talking psychopath and a victim who has "weak spots" is a devastating combination. If the psychopath's "show" is not enough, the adroit use of "stage props"—phony credentials, flashy car, expensive clothes, a sympathy-inducing role, and so forth—will usually complete the job.

Pondering on how our American culture is encouraging more and more the traits of psychopaths, Dr. Hare envisions a dark future reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange.

If, as I believe, our society is moving in the direction of permitting, reinforcing, and in some instances actually valuing some of the traits listed in the Psychopathy Checklist—traits such as impulsivity, irresponsibility, lack of remorse, and so on—our schools may be evolving into microcosms of a "camouflage society," where true psychopaths can hide out, pursuing their destructive, self-gratifying ways and endangering the general student population. […] our society may be not only fascinated but increasingly tolerant of the psychopathic personality. Even more frightening is the possibility that "cool" but vicious psychopaths will become twisted role models for children raised in dysfunctional families of disintegrating communities where little value is placed on honesty, fair play, and concern of the welfare of others.

[…] today our streets, our schools, and even our homes might afford the psychopath the chance to blend in undetected, undiagnosed, and actively encouraged. I hope that this book will draw attention to this frightening possibility by putting psychopathy in children into bold relief.

Eventually Dr. Hare discusses therapies for psychopaths. Unfortunately there aren't any and the only possibilities are to either teach them to use cognitive skills not to do harm—after all they are sane—or must outcast them.

With few exceptions, the traditional forms of psychotherapy, including psychoanalysis, group therapy, client-centered therapy, and psychodrama, have proved ineffective in the treatment of psychopathy. Nor have the biological therapies, including psychosurgery, electroshock therapy, and the use of various drugs, fared much better.

Psychopaths don't feel they have psychological or emotional problems, and they see no reason to change their behavior to conform to societal standards with which they do not agree.

To elaborate, psychopaths are generally well satisfied with themselves and with their inner landscape, bleak as it may seem to outside observers. They see nothing wrong with themselves, experience little personal distress, and find their behavior rational, rewarding, and satisfying; they never look back with regret or forward with concern. They perceive themselves as superior beings in a hostile, dog-eat-dog world in which others are competitors for power and resources. Psychopaths feel it is legitimate to manipulate and deceive others in order to obtain their "rights," and their social interactions are planned to outmaneuver the malevolence they see in others.

Dr. Hare then suggest we should refrain from sending them into therapy, because

unfortunately, programs of this sort merely provide the psychopath with better ways of manipulating, deceiving, and using people. As one psychopath put it, "These programs are like a finishing school. They teach you how to put the squeeze on people."

To conclude, Dr. Hare gives a survival guide teaching you how to protect yourself.

• Know what you are dealing with.
• Try not to be influenced by "props." (Don't pay too much attention to any unusually captivating characteristic of people you meet—dazzling looks, a powerful presence, mesmerizing mannerisms, a soothing voice, a rapidfire verbal pitch, and so forth. […] Close your eyes or look away and carefully listen to what the person is saying.)
• Don't wear blinkers. (Ask the individual about his or her friends, family, relatives, employment, place of residence, plans, and so forth. Psychopaths usually give vague, evasive, or inconsistent replies to queries about their personal lives. Be suspicious of such replies, and try to verify them.)
• Keep your guard up in high-risk situations.
• Know yourself. (Psychopaths are skilled at detecting and ruthlessly exploiting your weak spots, at finding the right buttons to press. Your best defense is to understand what your weak spots are and to be extremely wary of anyone who zeros in on them.)
• Obtain professional advice.
• Don't blame yourself.
• Be aware of who the victim is. (Psychopaths often give the impression that it is they who are suffering and that it is the victims who are to blame for their misery. But they are suffering a lot less that you are, and for different reasons. Don't waste your sympathy on them; their problems are not in the same league as yours. Theirs stem primarily from not getting what they want, whereas yours result from a physical, emotional, or financial pounding.)
• Be careful about power struggles. (Keep in mind that psychopaths have a strong need for psychological and physical control over others. They must be in charge, and they will use charm, intimidation, and violence to ensure their authority. In a power struggle a psychopath will usually focus on winning. This doesn't mean you shouldn't stand up for your rights, only that it will probably be difficult to do so without risking serious emotional or physical trauma.)
• Set firm ground rules. (Although power struggles with a psychopath are risky at best, you may be able to set up some clear ground rules—both for yourself and for the psychopath—to make your life easier and begin the difficult transition from victim to a person looking out for yourself.)
• Don't expect dramatic changes. (To a large extent, the personality of psychopaths are "carved in stone.")
• Cut your losses. (The psychopath may succeed in shattering your self-confidence and may convince you—and your friends—that you are unworthy of his or her time or even that you are "losing it." The more you give in, the more you will be taken advantage of by the psychopath's insatiable appetite for power and control. Rather than make fruitless attempts to adapt to a hopeless situation—usually by giving in, accepting your lot in life, or losing your self-identity—it may be better to recognize that your emotional and physical survival requires that you take charge of your life. This can be a tricky move—even a dangerous one—and it requires good professional advice, both clinical and legal.)
• Use support groups.

The book concludes with

The social and financial costs to society of failing to solve the daily mystery of the psychopath will be staggering. It is imperative that we continue to search for clues.

Take action, read one of the books in this review series, and build your risk management strategy. And do not forget you are a member of this society, so when you spot a psychopath, write your Congress Person.

In the next mini review I will review a book about our workplace.

Mini review. The sociopath next door

This mini review is the first in a series that I would call 301.7—terrorism @ home. In Europe the Seventies brought IRA, ETA, RAF, and BR and with them terrorism in our immediate environment. In the USA, 30 years later, after 11 September 2001, we also have to deal personally with terrorism. As a society, we have entities like military strategists, politicians, covert agencies, and historians to study the phenomenon; and we have institutions like the Secret Service, police, and army to deal with it.

Informally, we label the agents of terrorism with terms like sociopaths and psychopaths. However, for the past 60 or so years (actually, since Cleckley wrote The Mask of Sanity in 1941) these terms have been associated by the medical profession with an actual disease. The medical name of this disease is antisocial personality disorder and it is described in section 301.7 on page 706 in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV of the American Psychiatric Association.

It turns out that antisocial personality disorder, or APD for short, is a quite common disease—4% of the population are affected by it. For comparison, here in California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, the "alarmingly high" colorectal cancer incidence rate is 0.045%. Therefore APD has pandemic proportions and you should be aware of it, because you might have to deal with a sociopath living next door.

A good starting point is Dr. Martha Stout's book The sociopath next door. Dr. Stout has served on the Harvard Medical School for 25 years and is also in private practice, specializing in the victims of sociopaths. The book is easy to read and gives you an overview of the disease and some guidance on how to recognize and deal with APD sufferers.

Diagnosing and treating a disease is complex and requires a trained physician. For example, if you checked out section 301.7 above, you will have noticed that page 705 is all about when the symptoms are not those of APD, and the diagnostic criteria requires you to have some anamnesis prior to age 15 of the diseased.

If you think your friend has a heart attack, you do not take out your Swiss Army knife and perform a bypass on him; similarly, if you think you are the victim of a sociopath, seek immediate help from your family doctor, who can then refer you to a specialist. With this caveat, Dr. Stout teaches you some symptoms of this disease, namely

1. failure to conform to social norms
2. deceitfulness, manipulativeness
3. impulsivity, failure to plan ahead
4. irritability, aggressiveness
5. reckless disregard for the safety of self or others
6. consistent irresponsibility
7. lack of remorse after having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another person

But she teaches you also that there is little you can do, other than avoid any contact with sociopaths. In fact she elaborates on these 13 rules for dealing with sociopaths in everyday life:

1. the first rule involves the bitter pill of accepting that some people literally have no conscience
2. in a contest between your instincts and what is implied by the role a person has taken on—educator, doctor, leader, animal lover, humanist, parent—go with your instincts
3. when considering a new relationship of any kind, practice the Rule of Threes regarding the claims and promises a person makes, and the responsibilities he or she has. Make the Rule of Threes your policy
4. question authority
5. suspect flattery
6. if necessary, redefine your concept of respect
7. do not join the game
8. the best way to protect yourself from a sociopath is to avoid him, to refuse any kind of contact or communication
9. question your tendency to pity too easily
10. do not try to redeem the unredeemable
11. never agree, out of pity or for any other reason, to help a sociopath conceal his or her true character
12. defend your psyche
13. living well is the best revenge

So far I have not told you what this disease is. Dr. Stout explains that we have 7 senses. You know about about the first 5. The 6^th is intuition and the 7^th is conscience. A person with APD is a person completely lacking the 7^th sense. Like some people are born blind, some persons are born without a conscience. Because the incidence is so high—1 in 25, like for color blindness—you sooner or later will have to deal with a sufferer, although at first sight it is not obvious.

Like color blindness, APD is a genetic disease. Comparing monozygotic with dizygotic twins, scientists researching the Texas Adoption Project have estimated that APD is 54% inherited, the rest being acquired. Worse than many color blind people not being aware of their disease, the sociopaths cannot be aware of their disease because they do not have the conscience that is necessary to detect a conscience.

If you recall the research published early 2003 about Genghis Khan's propagating his APD-carrying genes to some 16 million men living between Afghanistan and northeastern China—almost one in every 200 men alive—you would expect this disease to be prevalent in Central Asia.

This is not so, because of the acquired component, which in this case should be qualified as "demonically nurtured." In fact, the Asian cultures focus on the relation among people, therefore sociopaths tend to be outcast or even executed, like the Inuit do with the kunlangeta, as they call the sociopaths. In America's Judeo-Christian culture of individualism, instead, many traits of sociopathy are praised and reinforced, such as impulsivity, irresponsibility, and lack of remorse.

In conclusion, right here is where you can become the victim of a sociopath. If you live here, slowly and carefully reading Dr. Stout's book is a must.

Stiles Two-Degree Pilot Data

As I was poking on the Internet for the interpolated 2º pilot color-matching data as functions of wavelength at intervals of 1 nm, I could not find it. As it is always nice to be able to go back to the "book" instead of converting from wavenumber and interpolating by oneself, I quickly scanned Table I(5.5.3) in Wyszecki and Stiles on the trusty old Digital Sender with the Kamakura engine I conceived back in 1991 and OCRed it with ABBYY FineReader 8.0 Professional and here it is:

% The Stiles & Burch 2-deg CMFs are based on measurements made in 10
% observers. The data are referred to as pilot data, but probably represent
% the best estimate of the 2 deg CMFs, since, unlike the CIE 2 deg
% functions (which were reconstructed from chromaticity data), they were
% measured directly.
%
% From Table I(5.5.3) of Wyszecki & Stiles (1982). (Table 1(5.5.3) of
% Wyszecki & Stiles (1982) gives the Stiles & Burch functions in 250
% cm^{-1} steps, while Table I(5.5.3) of Wyszecki & Stiles (1982) is gives
% them in interpolated 1 nm steps.)
%
% These CMFs differ slightly from those of Stiles & Burch (1955). As noted
% in footnote a on p. 335 of Table 1(5.5.3) of Wyszecki & Stiles (1982),
% the CMFs have been "corrected in accordance with instructions given by
% Stiles & Burch (1959)" and renormalized to primaries at 15500 (645.16),
% 19000 (526.32), and 22500 (444.44) cm^{-1} (nm).
%
cmf = [390, 0.18397*10^-2, -0.45393*10^-3, 0.12152*10^-1;
391, 0.22070*10^-2, -0.53474*10^-3, 0.14604*10^-1;
392, 0.26451*10^-2, -0.62941*10^-3, 0.17534*10^-1;
393, 0.31672*10^-2, -0.74019*10^-2, 0.21033*10^-1;
394, 0.37890*10^-2, -0.86974*10^-2, 0.25208*10^-1;
395, 0.46153*10^-2, -0.10464*10^-2, 0.31110*10^-1;
396, 0.54135*10^-2, -0.11995*10^-2, 0.36165*10^-1;
397, 0.62593*10^-2, -0.13528*10^-2, 0.41145*10^-1;
398, 0.72015*10^-2, -0.15386*10^-2, 0.46652*10^-1;
399, 0.83035*10^-2, -0.17975*10^-2, 0.53472*10^-1;
400, 0.96264*10^-2, -0.21689*10^-2, 0.62371*10^-1;
401, 0.11208*10^-2, -0.26695*10^-2, 0.73827*10^-1;
402, 0.13000*10^-2, -0.32299*10^-2, 0.87262*10^-1;
403, 0.14934*10^-2, -0.37616*10^-2, 0.10186;
404, 0.16943*10^-1, -0.41784*10^-2, 0.11682;
405, 0.18979*10^-1, -0.44304*10^-2, 0.13161;
406, 0.21071*10^-1, -0.46185*10^-2, 0.14684;
407, 0.23269*10^-1, -0.48824*10^-2, 0.16337;
408, 0.25621*10^-1, -0.53580*10^-2, 0.18206;
409, 0.28156*10^-1, -0.61520*10^-2, 0.20358;
410, 0.30803*10^-1, -0.72048*10^-2, 0.22750;
411, 0.33450*10^-1, -0.83929*10^-2, 0.25297;
412, 0.35991*10^-1, -0.95963*10^-2, 0.27918;
413, 0.38326*10^-1, -0.10704*10^-1, 0.30538;
414, 0.40459*10^-1, -0.11689*10^-1, 0.33172;
415, 0.42459*10^-1, -0.12579*10^-1, 0.35897;
416, 0.44398*10^-1, -0.13405*10^-1, 0.38787;
417, 0.46342*10^-1, -0.14194*10^-1, 0.41914;
418, 0.48282*10^-1, -0.14977*10^-1, 0.45284;
419, 0.50098*10^-1, -0.15786*10^-1, 0.48810;
420, 0.51662*10^-1, -0.16651*10^-1, 0.52396;
421, 0.52851*10^-1, -0.17603*10^-1, 0.55953;
422, 0.53564*10^-1, -0.18649*10^-1, 0.59396;
423, 0.53789*10^-1, -0.19688*10^-1, 0.62676;
424, 0.53542*10^-1, -0.20593*10^-1, 0.65752;
425, 0.52837*10^-1, -0.21240*10^-1, 0.68586;
426, 0.51690*10^-1, -0.21512*10^-1, 0.71140;
427, 0.50160*10^-1, -0.21404*10^-1, 0.73438;
428, 0.48348*10^-1, -0.21029*10^-1, 0.75560;
429, 0.46357*10^-1, -0.20502*10^-1, 0.77588;
430, 0.44287*10^-1, -0.19936*10^-1, 0.79604;
431, 0.42209*10^-1, -0.19414*10^-1, 0.81667;
432, 0.40065*10^-1, -0.18875*10^-1, 0.83746;
433, 0.37751*10^-1, -0.18212*10^-1, 0.85779;
434, 0.35168*10^-1, -0.17320*10^-1, 0.87703;
435, 0.32220*10^-1, -0.16097*10^-1, 0.89459;
436, 0.28888*10^-1, -0.14518*10^-1, 0.91025;
437, 0.25318*10^-1, -0.12711*10^-1, 0.92446;
438, 0.21671*10^-1, -0.10821*10^-1, 0.93780;
439, 0.18104*10^-1, -0.89882*10^-2, 0.95080;

440, 0.14763*10^-1, -0.73457*10^-2, 0.96395;
441, 0.11643*10^-1, -0.58873*10^-2, 0.97687;
442, 0.85576*10^-2, -0.44508*10^-2, 0.98815;
443, 0.53193*10^-2, -0.28691*10^-2, 0.99635;
444, 0.17441*10^-2, -0.97985*10^-3, 0.10001*10;
445, -0.23392*10^-2, 0.13690*10^-2, 0.99814;
446, -0.69620*10^-2, 0.42191*10^-2, 0.99033;
447, -0.12038*10^-1, 0.75200*10^-2, 0.97759;
448, -0.17481*10^-1, 0.11219*10^-1, 0.96083;
449, -0.23206*10^-1, 0.15266*10^-1, 0.94092;
450, -0.29130*10^-1, 0.19610*10^-1, 0.91875;
451, -0.35208*10^-1, 0.24189*10^-1, 0.89561;
452, -0.41419*10^-1, 0.28932*10^-1, 0.87310;
453, -0.47746*10^-1, 0.33770*10^-1, 0.85281;
454, -0.54170*10^-1, 0.38634*10^-1, 0.83625;
455, -0.60677*10^-1, 0.43464*10^-1, 0.82487;
456, -0.67291*10^-1, 0.48303*10^-1, 0.81815;
457, -0.74083*10^-1, 0.53311*10^-1, 0.81348;
458, -0.81124*10^-1, 0.58651*10^-1, 0.80820;
459, -0.88482*10^-1, 0.64481*10^-1, 0.79972;
460, -0.96224*10^-1, 0.70954*10^-1, 0.78554;
461, -0.10434, 0.78117*10^-1, 0.76479;
462, -0.11270, 0.85807*10^-1, 0.73987;
463, -0.12113, 0.93840*10^-1, 0.71354;
464, -0.12947, 0.10203, 0.68846;
465, -0.13759, 0.11022, 0.66723;
466, -0.14535, 0.11825, 0.65182;
467, -0.15284, 0.12620, 0.64089;
468, -0.16017, 0.13420, 0.63201;
469, -0.16747, 0.14239, 0.62281;
470, -0.17486, 0.15088, 0.61098;
471, -0.18247, 0.15981, 0.59430;
472, -0.19025, 0.16916, 0.57222;
473, -0.19801, 0.17875, 0.54617;
474, -0.20553, 0.18840, 0.51769;
475, -0.21260, 0.19794, 0.48829;
476, -0.21903, 0.20720, 0.45941;
477, -0.22465, 0.21603, 0.43234;
478, -0.22953, 0.22444, 0.40726;
479, -0.23386, 0.23255, 0.38389;
480, -0.23780, 0.24042, 0.36195;
481, -0.24153, 0.24816, 0.34118;
482, -0.24521, 0.25585, 0.32131;
483, -0.24896, 0.26359, 0.30216;
484, -0.25281, 0.27155, 0.28379;
485, -0.25674, 0.27993, 0.26634;
486, -0.26076, 0.28889, 0.24990;
487, -0.26485, 0.29862, 0.23458;
488, -0.26901, 0.30928, 0.22050;
489, -0.27319, 0.32095, 0.20767;

490, -0.27727, 0.33353, 0.19593;
491, -0.28109, 0.34686, 0.18509;
492, -0.28453, 0.36081, 0.17498;
493, -0.28744, 0.37526, 0.16541;
494, -0.28969, 0.39008, 0.15622;
495, -0.29125, 0.40521, 0.14730;
496, -0.29228, 0.42078, 0.13865;
497, -0.29298, 0.43696, 0.13031;
498, -0.29354, 0.45390, 0.12232;
499, -0.29415, 0.47173, 0.11470;
500, -0.29500, 0.49060, 0.10749;
501, -0.29616, 0.51059, 0.10071;
502, -0.29734, 0.53148, 0.94295*10^-1;
503, -0.29813, 0.55298, 0.88199*10^-1;
504, -0.29816, 0.57482, 0.82358*10^-1;
505, -0.29706, 0.59673, 0.76714*10^-1;
506, -0.29446, 0.61845, 0.71209*10^-1;
507, -0.29004, 0.63975, 0.65792*10^-1;
508, -0.28387, 0.66063, 0.60468*10^-1;
509, -0.27628, 0.68127, 0.55274*10^-1;
510, -0.26759, 0.70184, 0.50248*10^-1;
511, -0.25812, 0.72251, 0.45426*10^-1;
512, -0.24816, 0.74344, 0.40844*10^-1;
513, -0.23802, 0.76478, 0.36537*10^-1;
514, -0.22781, 0.78656, 0.32523*10^-1;
515, -0.21725, 0.80852, 0.28781*10^-1;
516, -0.20600, 0.83037, 0.25287*10^-1;
517, -0.19374, 0.85179, 0.22016*10^-1;
518, -0.18014, 0.87252, 0.18945*10^-1;
519, -0.16488, 0.89226, 0.16050*10^-1;
520, -0.14768, 0.91076, 0.13309*10^-1;
521, -0.12848, 0.92793, 0.10717*10^-1;
522, -0.10745, 0.94384, 0.82893*10^-2;
523, -0.84777*10^-1, 0.95857, 0.60380*10^-2;
524, -0.60631*10^-1, 0.97221, 0.39763*10^-2;
525, -0.35184*10^-1, 0.98482, 0.21170*10^-2;
526, -0.86031*10^-2, 0.99650, 0.47268*10^-3;
527, 0.18950*10^-1, 0.10073*10, -0.94755*10^-3;
528, 0.47338*10^-1, 0.10172*10, -0.21657*10^-2;
529, 0.76441*10^-1, 0.10261*10, -0.32223*10^-2;
530, 0.10614, 0.10339*10, -0.41574*10^-2;
531, 0.13633, 0.10405*10, -0.50101*10^-2;
532, 0.16688, 0.10459*10, -0.58186*10^-2;
533, 0.19770, 0.10499*10, -0.66202*10^-2;
534, 0.22868, 0.10525*10, -0.74487*10^-2;
535, 0.25981, 0.10538*10, -0.83032*10^-2;
536, 0.29116, 0.10542*10, -0.91612*10^-2;
537, 0.32277, 0.10539*10, -0.10001*10^-1;
538, 0.35471, 0.10531*10, -0.10799*10^-1;
539, 0.38702, 0.10521*10, -0.11536*10^-1;

540, 0.41976, 0.10512*10, -0.12191*10^-1;
541, 0.45298, 0.10507*10, -0.12742*10^-1;
542, 0.48676, 0.10505*10, -0.13188*10^-1;
543, 0.52121, 0.10504*10, -0.13543*10^-1;
544, 0.55645, 0.10502*10, -0.13822*10^-1;
545, 0.59259, 0.10498*10, -0.14039*10^-1;
546, 0.62973, 0.10489*10, -0.14210*10^-1;
547, 0.66800, 0.10473*10, -0.14348*10^-1;
548, 0.70748, 0.10448*10, -0.14468*10^-1;
549, 0.74822, 0.10413*10, -0.14579*10^-1;
550, 0.79004, 0.10368*10, -0.14681*10^-1;
551, 0.83271, 0.10312*10, -0.14770*10^-1;
552, 0.87603, 0.10245*10, -0.14845*10^-1;
553, 0.91978, 0.10168*10, -0.14901*10^-1;
554, 0.96376, 0.10080*10, -0.14936*10^-1;
555, 0.10078*10, 0.99826, -0.14947*10^-1;
556, 0.10516*10, 0.98745, -0.14931*10^-1;
557, 0.10953*10, 0.97574, -0.14888*10^-1;
558, 0.11391*10, 0.96338, -0.14819*10^-1;
559, 0.11834*10, 0.95066, -0.14727*10^-1;
560, 0.12283*10, 0.93783, -0.14613*10^-1;
561, 0.12743*10, 0.92515, -0.14480*10^-1;
562, 0.13215*10, 0.91287, -0.14328*10^-1;
563, 0.13702*10, 0.90123, -0.14160*10^-1;
564, 0.14206*10, 0.89044, -0.13978*10^-1;
565, 0.14727*10, 0.88039, -0.13782*10^-1;
566, 0.15262*10, 0.87070, -0.13575*10^-1;
567, 0.15807*10, 0.86100, -0.13357*10^-1;
568, 0.16360*10, 0.85095, -0.13129*10^-1;
569, 0.16917*10, 0.84018, -0.12893*10^-1;
570, 0.17476*10, 0.82835 -0.12650*10^-1;
571, 0.18034*10, 0.81513, -0.12401*10^-1;
572, 0.18589*10, 0.80020, -0.12147*10^-1;
573, 0.19138*10, 0.78362, -0.11888*10^-1;
574, 0.19680*10, 0.76573, -0.11625*10^-1;
575, 0.20214*10, 0.74686, -0.11356*10^-1;
576, 0.20739*10, 0.72735, -0.11082*10^-1;
577, 0.21254*10, 0.70752, -0.10803*10^-1;
578, 0.21757*10, 0.68770, -0.10518*10^-1;
579, 0.22247*10, 0.66819, -0.10228*10^-1;
580, 0.22724*10, 0.64930, -0.99317*10^-2;
581, 0.23186*10, 0.63117, -0.96303*10^-2;
582, 0.23635*10, 0.61365, -0.93258*10^-2;
583, 0.24069*10, 0.59659, -0.90203*10^-2;
584, 0.24489*10, 0.57981, -0.87159*10^-2;
585, 0.24896*10, 0.56317, -0.84148*10^-2;
586, 0.25289*10, 0.54649, -0.81188*10^-2;
587, 0.25668*10, 0.52963, -0.78300*10^-2;
588, 0.26034*10, 0.51245, -0.75502*10^-2;
589, 0.26387*10, 0.49480, -0.72812*10^-2;

590, 0.26725*10, 0.47675, -0.70210*10^-2;
591, 0.27044*10, 0.45842, -0.67665*10^-2;
592, 0.27344*10, 0.43993, -0.65146*10^-2;
593, 0.27620*10, 0.42143, -0.62622*10^-2;
594, 0.27871*10, 0.40302, -0.60062*10^-2;
595, 0.28093*10, 0.38484, -0.57437*10^-2;
596, 0.28286*10, 0.36699, -0.54718*10^-2;
597, 0.28445*10, 0.34961, -0.51875*10^-2;
598, 0.28570*10, 0.33277, -0.48896*10^-2;
599, 0.28660*10, 0.31647, -0.45831*10^-2;
600, 0.28717*10, 0.30069, -0.42743*10^-2;
601, 0.28742*10, 0.28539, -0.39696*10^-2;
602, 0.28734*10, 0.27056, -0.36751*10^-2;
603, 0.28695*10, 0.25615, -0.33970*10^-2;
604, 0.28625*10, 0.24215, -0.31410*10^-2;
605, 0.28525*10, 0.22853, -0.29132*10^-2;
606, 0.28397*10, 0.21526, -0.27191*10^-2;
607, 0.28240*10, 0.20233, -0.25626*10^-2;
608, 0.28055*10, 0.18975, -0.24398*10^-2;
609, 0.27842*10, 0.17755, -0.23441*10^-2;
610, 0.27601*10, 0.16575, -0.22693*10^-2;
611, 0.27333*10, 0.15438, -0.22092*10^-2;
612, 0.27037*10, 0.14347, -0.21577*10^-2;
613, 0.26714*10, 0.13305, -0.21090*10^-2;
614, 0.26365*10, 0.12313, -0.20572*10^-2;
615, 0.25989*10, 0.11373, -0.19966*10^-2;
616, 0.25586*10, 0.10489, -0.19220*10^-2;
617, 0.25158*10, 0.96593*10^-1, -0.18328*10^-2;
618, 0.24707*10, 0.88810*10^-1, -0.17319*10^-2;
619, 0.24235*10, 0.81516*10^-1, -0.16223*10^-2;
620, 0.23743*10, 0.74682*10^-1, -0.15069*10^-2;
621, 0.23234*10, 0.68282*10^-1, -0.13883*10^-2;
622, 0.22708*10, 0.62289*10^-1, -0.12695*10^-2;
623, 0.22169*10, 0.56679*10^-1, -0.11532*10^-2;
624, 0.21617*10, 0.51426*10^-1, -0.10418*10^-2;
625, 0.21054*10, 0.46504*10^-1, -0.93822*10^-3;
626, 0.20483*10, 0.41892*10^-1, -0.84426*10^-3;
627, 0.19904*10, 0.37578*10^-1, -0.75965*10^-3;
628, 0.19320*10, 0.33553*10^-1, -0.68351*10^-3;
629, 0.18733*10, 0.29807*10^-1, -0.61496*10^-3;
630, 0.18145*10, 0.26333*10^-1, -0.55316*10^-3;
631, 0.17557*10, 0.23120*10^-1, -0.49727*10^-3;
632, 0.16972*10, 0.20162*10^-1, -0.44648*10^-3;
633, 0.16390*10, 0.17448*10^-1, -0.39998*10^-3;
634, 0.15815*10, 0.14972*10^-1, -0.35697*10^-3;
635, 0.15247*10, 0.12724*10^-1, -0.31668*10^-3;
636, 0.14687*10, 0.10695*10^-1, -0.27849*10^-3;
637, 0.14137*10, 0.88722*10^-2, -0.24217*10^-3;
638, 0.13596*10, 0.72418*10^-2, -0.20760*10^-3;
639, 0.13065*10, 0.57899*10^-2, -0.17465*10^-3;

640, 0.12543*10, 0.45033*10^-2, -0.14319*10^-3;
641, 0.12030*10, 0.33688*10^-2, -0.11310*10^-3;
642, 0.11527*10, 0.23734*10^-2, -0.84268*10^-4;
643, 0.11033*10, 0.15045*10^-2, -0.56564*10^-4;
644, 0.10550*10, 0.74966*10^-3, -0.29873*10^-4;
645, 0.10076*10, 0.96611*10^-4, -0.40831*10^-5;
646, 0.96114, -0.46618*10^-3, 0.20896*10^-4;
647, 0.91577, -0.94692*10^-3, 0.45000*10^-4;
648, 0.87149, -0.13524*10^-2, 0.68102*10^-4;
649, 0.82835, -0.16894*10^-2, 0.90080*10^-4;
650, 0.78642, -0.19645*10^-2, 0.11081*10^-3;
651, 0.74574, -0.21840*10^-2, 0.13018*10^-3;
652, 0.70637, -0.23544*10^-2, 0.14807*10^-3;
653, 0.66835, -0.24819*10^-2, 0.16437*10^-3;
654, 0.63174, -0.25727*10^-2, 0.17897*10^-3;
655, 0.59659, -0.26327*10^-2, 0.19175*10^-3;
656, 0.56294, -0.26679*10^-2, 0.20261*10^-3;
657, 0.53081, -0.26828*10^-2, 0.21149*10^-3;
658, 0.50018, -0.26796*10^-2, 0.21842*10^-3;
659, 0.47099, -0.26601*10^-2, 0.22343*10^-3;
660, 0.44320, -0.26262*10^-2, 0.22656*10^-3;
661, 0.41679, -0.25797*10^-2, 0.22784*10^-3;
662, 0.39172, -0.25224*10^-2, 0.22731*10^-3;
663, 0.36793, -0.24560*10^-2, 0.22501*10^-3;
664, 0.34541, -0.23822*10^-2, 0.22096*10^-3;
665, 0.32410, -0.23027*10^-2, 0.21520*10^-3;
666, 0.30398, -0.22192*10^-2, 0.20776*10^-3;
667, 0.28502, -0.21332*10^-2, 0.19868*10^-3;
668, 0.26716, -0.20460*10^-2, 0.18809*10^-3;
669, 0.25035, -0.19581*10^-2, 0.17630*10^-3;
670, 0.23455, -0.18700*10^-2, 0.16361*10^-3;
671, 0.21971, -0.17822*10^-2, 0.15033*10^-3;
672, 0.20576, -0.16950*10^-2, 0.13675*10^-3;
673, 0.19267, -0.16090*10^-2, 0.12317*10^-3;
674, 0.18037, -0.15247*10^-2, 0.10988*10^-3;
675, 0.16884, -0.14424*10^-2, 0.97164*10^-4;
676, 0.15801, -0.13625*10^-2, 0.85290*10^-4;
677, 0.14784, -0.12856*10^-2, 0.74535*10^-4;
678, 0.13829, -0.12120*10^-2, 0.65168*10^-4;
679, 0.12930, -0.11420*10^-2, 0.57370*10^-4;
680, 0.12086, -0.10755*10^-2, 0.51033*10^-4;
681, 0.11294, -0.10124*10^-2, 0.45981*10^-4;
682, 0.10549, -0.95247*10^-3, 0.42045*10^-4;
683, 0.98510*10^-1, -0.89554*10^-3, 0.39058*10^-4;
684, 0.91958*10^-1, -0.84145*10^-3, 0.36853*10^-4;
685, 0.85811*10^-1, -0.79004*10^-3, 0.35271*10^-4;
686, 0.80044*10^-1, -0.74116*10^-3, 0.34151*10^-4;
687, 0.74630*10^-1, -0.69463*10^-3, 0.33338*10^-4;
688, 0.69544*10^-1, -0.65030*10^-3, 0.32676*10^-4;
689, 0.64762*10^-1, -0.60803*10^-3, 0.32017*10^-4;

690, 0.60260*10^-1, -0.56765*10^-3, 0.31211*10^-4;
691, 0.56019*10^-1, -0.52909*10^-3, 0.30183*10^-4;
692, 0.52029*10^-1, -0.49231*10^-3, 0.28963*10^-4;
693, 0.48282*10^-1, -0.45733*10^-3, 0.27587*10^-4;
694, 0.44769*10^-1, -0.42414*10^-3, 0.26090*10^-4;
695, 0.41480*10^-1, -0.39274*10^-3, 0.24508*10^-4;
696, 0.38408*10^-1, -0.36311*10^-3, 0.22876*10^-4;
697, 0.35543*10^-1, -0.33526*10^-3, 0.21228*10^-4;
698, 0.32878*10^-1, -0.30917*10^-3, 0.19597*10^-4;
699, 0.30405*10^-1, -0.28486*10^-3, 0.18018*10^-4;
700, 0.28114*10^-1, -0.26231*10^-3, 0.16521*10^-4;
701, 0.25999*10^-1, -0.24151*10^-3, 0.15140*10^-4;
702, 0.24051*10^-1, -0.22247*10^-3, 0.13905*10^-4;
703, 0.22261*10^-1, -0.20514*10^-3, 0.12833*10^-4;
704, 0.20620*10^-1, -0.18940*10^-3, 0.11911*10^-4;
705, 0.19117*10^-1, -0.17512*10^-3, 0.11124*10^-4;
706, 0.17740*10^-1, -0.16218*10^-3, 0.10457*10^-4;
707, 0.16481*10^-1, -0.15046*10^-3, 0.98953*10^-5;
708, 0.15329*10^-1, -0.13983*10^-3, 0.94242*10^-5;
709, 0.14273*10^-1, -0.13018*10^-3, 0.90293*10^-5;
710, 0.13305*10^-1, -0.12140*10^-3, 0.86965*10^-5;
711, 0.12415*10^-1, -0.11336*10^-3, 0.84120*10^-5;
712, 0.11593*10^-1, -0.10595*10^-3, 0.81621*10^-5;
713, 0.10829*10^-1, -0.99062*10^-4, 0.79333*10^-5;
714, 0.10116*10^-1, -0.92590*10^-4, 0.77125*10^-5;
715, 0.94092*10^-2, -0.85760*10^-4, 0.74351*10^-5;
716, 0.87394*10^-2, -0.79184*10^-4, 0.71463*10^-5;
717, 0.81190*10^-2, -0.73128*10^-4, 0.68695*10^-5;
718, 0.75441*10^-2, -0.67550*10^-4, 0.66041*10^-5;
719, 0.70114*10^-2, -0.62412*10^-4, 0.63497*10^-5;
720, 0.65177*10^-2, -0.57677*10^-4, 0.61057*10^-5;
721, 0.60599*10^-2, -0.53313*10^-4, 0.58718*10^-5;
722, 0.56354*10^-2, -0.49290*10^-4, 0.56474*10^-5;
723, 0.52417*10^-2, -0.45580*10^-4, 0.54322*10^-5;
724, 0.48765*10^-2, -0.42159*10^-4, 0.52258*10^-5;
725, 0.45377*10^-2, -0.39003*10^-4, 0.50277*10^-5;
726, 0.42232*10^-2, -0.36091*10^-4, 0.48377*10^-5;
727, 0.39313*10^-2, -0.33403*10^-4, 0.46553*10^-5;
728, 0.36600*10^-2, -0.30921*10^-4, 0.44728*10^-5;
729, 0.24081*10^-2, -0.28628*10^-4, 0.42952*10^-5;
730, 0.31742*10^-2, -0.26511*10^-4, 0.41251*10^-5];

Snap, match, shop

It appears I have not been on HP's home page for a month, because I totally missed a color related story, one that got a high reader score of 4.78 out of 5. This story, Snap, match, shop, is about the practical solution to a very difficult problem, namely finding the best shade of foundation for one's complexion.

As can be appreciated from the technical report, this is not the kind of problem that can be solved in a Silicon Valley garage. It requires a good research laboratory that can synergistically leverage deep expertise in color science, imaging and mobile communications.

The research team was led by Principal Scientist Dr. Nina Bhatti portraited below.

In the picture at below, Nina Bhatti holds the specially designed color chart near her skin while using a mobile phone camera to capture and send the photo via MMS to the advisory service for a color recommendation.

The full HP Labs team that helped to create the Color Match technology is presented in the picture below. Top row (left to right) Harlyn Baker, Sabine Susstrunk, Nina Bhatti, Nic Lyons. Bottom row: Mike Harville, John Schettino, Scott Clearwater.

Instead of sitting down with a consultant at a beauty counter, a shopper photographs herself using a mobile phone camera and while holding a specially designed color chart. The person then sends the photo as an MMS (multimedia message) to an advisory service. That system locates the person’s face within the image and color corrects the image for camera and lighting discrepancies.

Skin pixels are extracted from the color corrected image of the person’s face, and then compared to an existing database of previously captured and analyzed images of skin tones of real people. In a matter of seconds, people using the service receive a text message response with a recommendation on the shades of makeup that are best suited to their complexion.

The technology can work with any mobile operator and on any mobile phone equipped with a camera.

The photograph below illustrates that using the specially designed color chart and a mobile phone camera, a shopper can receive an expert recommendation on what shades of make-up are best suited for their complexion.

The photograph below illustrates how the system locates the consumer's face within the image and color-corrects the image for camera and lighting discrepancies.

The image is then compared to an existing database of previously captured and analyzed images of skin tones of real people. In a matter of seconds, the consumer receives a text message response, with a recommendation on the shade of foundation that best matches her complexion.

HP's Jhilmil Jain holds a newer version of the specially designed color chart near her skin while someone uses a mobile phone camera to capture and send the image via MMS to the advisory service for a color recommendation.

A common mobile phone equipped with a camera can help shoppers identify the make-up shades that best suit their complexion. Users receive a text message, suggesting the appropriate shade of make up for their skin tone.

JPEG XR

When approved, the new JPEG compression system submitted earlier this year will be called JPEG XR.

As I mentioned in my 29 April 2007 post on MPEG-A, that week Microsoft had submitted HD Photo as a new possible JPEG standard. Earlier this morning Microsoft sent out a press release announcing that JPEG introduced a new work item for this specification and its tentative name is JPEG XR. In truth, this is actually old news, as JPEG already made this announcement in their 6 July 2007 press release after their 42^nd meeting at the EPFL in Lausanne. If you want to stay tuned, the next date is 16 November 2007, when the press release on the 43^th meeting in Kobe will come out.

If you are a JPEG delegate or have access to one, the relevant working draft document is ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG1 n4336, or wg1n4336 for short.

As I mentioned in my 8 March 2007 post, JPEG XR is somewhere between JPEG and JPEG 2000. It is a file format and associated codec specifically designed to for use with all types of continuous tone photographic content. The codec has some reminiscences of MPEG-4 AVC (Advanced Video Coding, a.k.a. ITU-T H.264), like the use of 4×4 blocks. However, the main innovation is the extended range for the numerical encoding of the pixel values.

In the beginning of digital color imaging standardization, the Xerox Color Encoding Standard adopted the concept of arbitrary color gamuts that was already in use in earlier standards for digital monochrome imaging. Such an encoding was used also in the ISO ODA Color Addendum and in color fax (ITU-T T.42, T.81). However, then in 1994 a less brilliant decision was made with sRGB to cast in concrete a specific device gamut based on a byte encoding.

In 1994 that not-so-smart ad hoc decision was plausible from an engineering point of view because at that time digital cameras in the consumer market had only 6 bits of information, and the rest was noise. CRTs typically had 8 bits per channels, and to use a 10 bit CRT you had to have a very clean power source.

Today the situation is quite different. In the consumer market, digital reflex cameras use sensors that have 12 bits of information per channel, and also typical desktop LCD panels have 12 bits of information per channel. Today we use algorithms like retinex (e.g., digital flash) to compress the sensor's dynamic range into 8 bits, but then when the LCD panel's controller logic expands the data again to 12 bits, those 4 bits are gone, and we see contouring.

The overall goal of JPEG XR is to support the greatest possible level of image dynamic range and color precision, maintain forward compatibility with existing formats, and keep the device implementations of the encoder and decoder as simple as possible.

To maintain full compatibility with existing legacy devices and applications, JPEG XR supports a variety of color profiled pixel formats using unsigned integer representations in bit depths of 8 and 16, as well as smaller bit depths for specialized applications. Additionally, JPEG XR also supports a number of advanced pixel formats that avoid many of the limitations and complexity imposed by unsigned integer representations.

Specifically, JPEG XR supports three types of numerical encoding, each at a variety of bit depths: unsigned integer, fixed point, and floating point.