Perceptions

Perceptions. What are they? Anyone? From a mathematical, purely physics standpoint should they be there? Does all matter experience perceptions or only some kinds of matter? Is the matter what experiences perceptions or is matter just a mathematical device to communicate what eventually will become a perception? What is the difference between matter and our perception of that matter? The atheist or neurologist might say, well they come from the brain. The theist or someone with general spiritual inclinations might say, well there is this thing called the mind, which isn't the brain, and the perceptions come from there. But honestly I don't think there is an accepted casual explanation for perceptions. The mind as something apart from the brain is unstudiable, and the brain if it is purely a mathematical substance, operating similar to a computer, then where do perceptions come from? Or to put it another way does a robot given optical sensors actually see or does it merely consist of a series of physical reactions, mathematically describable, and believing a robot has senses is humans anthropomorphizing our human-centered viewpoint onto a non-living thing?