Pakistani Student Saleeta Qadir Shines in Global AI Competition

Among the finest students of Artificial Intelligence of the University of Erlangen in Germany, Saleeta Qadir has grabbed the attention of the world as she has been one of the 10 finalists of a contest that has international repute, the Best Illusion of the Year contest. Her piece, entitled Static Spin is an absorbing optical illusion that creates an illusion of moving elements in a completely fixed picture that delights both science-lovers and common viewers.

The Neural Correlate Society-hosted yearly contest is in its 20th year and is regarded as a general honor of the most innovative products in visual perception. It sets artists, researchers and students world over to work on illusions that touch on processing visual information within the brain.

The work created by Saleeta depicts a ballerina the silhouette of whom alternatingly transforms into black and white. This figure does not move physically but the alternating tones deceive the brain in such a way that it feels the divider is rotating. The illusion was created by Ciocci in the course of her Master project in AI and combines the computer graphics, mathematical accuracy and visual storytelling.

The presented project by Saleeta lies on the border of art and technology. I think it is an outstanding testimony to the power artificial intelligence can have in improving creative expression, he said, Professor Bernhard Egger, who advised her academic progress. The effect is so strong that nearly all the viewers can see a motion where there is not.

Being promoted by a 2D flat illusion of 90s, Saleeta developed the idea and turned it into a 3D moving image. True to the philosophy of open science, she released the source code as well and other people in the field were able to recreate the illusion using their own images.

Her entry is falling alongside solid other entries by such countries as Japan, China, the USA, the UK, Serbia and the Czech Republic. Not only a representative of her university but also the touch-point of a Pakistani presence in the sphere of artificial intelligence and visual computing, Saleeta is a contender who can definitely finish in the top three. Voting has begun whereby the winners are to be chosen by the people and this is done on the official site of the competition.