Fig. 2From: Spatial and temporal resolution of geographic information: an observation-based theoryObserver with several receptors. Note: Only receptor R1 is relevant to the estimation of the spatial and temporal resolution of the observation because it is directly stimulated by external stimuli. An example of observation process where several receptors are chained is the hearing process as described in [93]. The process can be summarized as follows: eardrums (R1) collect sound waves and vibrate; after them, hair cells (R2) convert the mechanical vibrations to electrical signals. These electrical signals are then carried to the auditory cortex, i.e., the part of the brain involved in perceiving sound. In the auditory cortex, there are specialist neurons (R3) which specialize in different combinations of tone (e.g., some are sensitive to pure tones, such as those produced by a flute, and some to complex sounds like those made by a violin). At last, there are other neurons (R4) which can combine information from the specialist neurons to recognize a word or an instrumentBack to article page