• Ph.D. (Psychology) University of Pennsylvania, 1969.
• M.A. (Psychology) University of Pennsylvania, 1968.
• B.A. (Psychology) Stanford University, 1965.

Honors and Professional Societies

American Psychological Association, (1967-90)

Psychonomic Society, (1968-)

American Association for the Advancement of Science, (1969-)

Society for Computers in Psychology, (1969-)

Eastern Psychological Association, (1970-88)

Sigma Xi, (1970-); Sigma Xi Board of Governors, Brown University, (1972-76)

Society for Mathematical Psychology, charter member (1977-)

Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, (1986-1988)

American Psychological Society, (1990-)

Medical Image Perception Society, charter member (1997-)

Private Industry Experience

Following his arrival at BBN in 1976, Dr. Getty established and developed the Human Performance Laboratory, a computer-based facility to support a wide range of research efforts on human perception and performance. Over the years, Dr. Getty has worked primarily in three areas: (1) visual pattern recognition and image-based decision-aiding systems, (2) applications of stereoscopic human vision, and (3) improved human-computer interaction.

In a series of projects supported by ONR, Dr. Getty studied the recognition and identification of complex visual patterns. He developed mathematical models that predict the rates of identification confusion error for complex visual patterns based on the observer’s multidimensional perceptual space revealed through use of multidimensional scaling procedures. He organized and chaired a symposium on the recognition and classification of complex auditory and visual signals, held in 1978. The proceedings were published as a book by L. Erlbaum Associates, with Dr. Getty as senior editor. In a project for the National Eye Institute, he developed a new classification system for cataracts using multidimensional scaling procedures to identify previously unknown features.

In a series of medical projects, Dr. Getty was involved in the development and testing of visual-feature-based decision-aiding systems designed to increase the accuracy of image-based medical diagnosis. In one project, the reading and decision aids significantly increased the diagnostic performance of community radiologists reading mammograms to detect breast cancer, raising accuracy to the level attained by specialists. In a second project, he developed aids to improve the accuracy of staging of prostate cancer using MR images and achieved a significant improvement in accuracy compared to unaided reading. In a third project, the decision-aiding system is being used to dramatically improve the diagnosis of liver lesions using MR and CT images.

Dr. Getty has conducted human factors research in several areas of human-computer interaction. He developed the first multi-slice image display system for medical CT images. He designed and implemented a multiple-image, multiple-monitor display system for the AUSEX (Air to Undersea Surveillance Experiment) project supported by ARPA, which involved a real-time, highly interactive interchange between a large database and an operator. He is currently working with the Speech Solutions Group at BBN to apply human factors methods to the design of speech-enabled systems for directing telephone calls.

With ONR support, Dr. Getty led a program of research on aspects of perception and control of three-dimensional objects viewed in a true volumetric display (BBN’s SpaceGraph). Under sponsorship of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Getty organized and chaired a symposium in Washington in 1982 on current perceptual research and applications in three-dimensional display systems. An outgrowth of this experience has been his development of a stereoscopic capture and display system for mammography which permits a radiologist to directly view the internal structure of the breast in depth. He has conducted research on the human interface for the stereoscopic display workstation, using both manual and speech-enabled control. Dr. Getty was recently awarded a patent for this system, generalized to “stereoscopic radiography” (Patent #6,031,565). A preliminary study of this system for improved early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer was recently completed, with Army support. It was found that stereo mammography significantly improves cancer diagnosis over standard film studies. A second, exciting finding was that stereo mammography appears to greatly improve detection of early, subtle lesions in the breast. A clinical trial of this system, for improved early detection of breast cancer and reduced rate of patient recall is being conducted at the Breast Imaging Center of Emory University.

Teaching Experience

As an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Brown University, Dr. Getty constructed mathematical models and conducted experimental research on human timing processes, with a interest in the timing mechanisms that underlie perception and generation of speech and musical rhythm.

He developed and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in sensory function and perception, human information processing, psychology for medical students, mathematical models of perceptual and cognitive processes, computer applications in psychology, and experimental design and statistics (Psychology Department, Brown University)