Why do people like cartoons? Options

[*mipadi*]

I stumbled across the most interesting piece of information the other day, which, given the wide interest in graphics on createBlog, I thought might be interesting for users.

Many users here know of the difference between raster images and vector images. For those who are unfamiliar, raster images are ones in which image data (red, green, blue, and alpha [transparency] channels) for each pixel are stored. These images are often described as "photorealistic". PNG's and JPEG's are both raster-based image formats.

Vector images, on the other hand, store geometric and coordinate information for shapes. In other words, a circle is stored as an object with a center, a radius, a fill color, a stroke color, a stroke width, etc. These images are often described as having a "hand-drawn" appearance. Images made in Adobe Illustrator are vector images.

The human eye captures information similarly to a raster image: Light enters the eye and stimulates millions of photo-receptive ("light-sensitive") cells at the back of the eye. In other words, when you see something, you are essentially seeing an image made up of millions of pixels.

But here's the interesting thing: The brain translates this visual input in a way similar to vector images. The brain is much better at breaking down objects in our visual fields into geometric shapes, and simply noting the spatial position (i.e. center), size, color, etc.

So why do humans seem to like cartoons? Cartoons highlight geometric shapes—exactly the way the brain likes to interpret and store imagery. That is why it is easier for the human mind (especially the minds of small children) to process cartoons. Similarly, that is why corporate logos with strong geometric shapes and lines stick in our minds easier.

I found this quite fascinating, which, admittedly, is partly due to my fascination with vector images. It seems so straightforward to store images as a collection of pixels, but it's rather ingenius—not to mention extremely efficient—to break an image down into mathematical calculations. (This is precisely why I find mathematics to be such an exciting and fascinating subject.) I only wonder if the computer scientists who developed vector-based imagery knew that was exactly how our brain retained images!