Real-time motion detection by lateral inhibition in accumulative computation.

Many researchers have explored the relationship between recurrent neural networks and finite state machines. Finite state machines constitute the best characterized computational model, whereas artificial neural networks have become a very successful tool for modeling and problem solving. In the few last years, the neurally inspired lateral inhibition in accumulative computation (LIAC) method and its application to the motion detection task have been introduced. The article shows how to implement the tasks directly related to LIAC in motion detection by means of a formal model described as finite state machines. This paper introduces two steps towards that direction: (a) A simplification of the general LIAC method is performed by formally transforming it into a finite state machine. (b) A hardware implementation of such a designed LIAC module, as well as an 8×8 LIAC module, has been tested on several video sequences, providing promising performance results

A historical perspective of algorithmic lateral inhibition and accumulative computation in computer vision

Certainly, one of the prominent ideas of Professor José Mira was that it is absolutely mandatory to specify the mechanisms and/or processes underlying each task and inference mentioned in an architecture in order to make operational that architecture. The conjecture of the last fifteen years of joint research has been that any bottom-up organization may be made operational using two biologically inspired methods called ?algorithmic lateral inhibition?, a generalization of lateral inhibition anatomical circuits, and ?accumulative computation?, a working memory related to the temporal evolution of the membrane potential. This paper is dedicated to the computational formulation of both methods. Finally, all of the works of our group related to this methodological approximation are mentioned and summarized, showing that all of them support the validity of this approximation

Lateral Inhibition in Accumulative Computation and Fuzzy Sets for Human Fall Pattern Recognition in Colour and Infrared Imagery

Fall detection is an emergent problem in pattern recognition. In this paper, a novel approach which enables to identify a type of a fall and reconstruct its characteristics is presented. The features detected include the position previous to a fall, the direction and velocity of a fall, and the postfall inactivity. Video sequences containing a possible fall are analysed image by image using the lateral inhibition in accumulative computation method. With this aim, the region of interest of human figures is examined in each image, and geometrical and kinematic characteristics for the sequence are calculated. The approach is valid in colour and in infrared video

Revisiting algorithmic lateral inhibition and accumulative computation

Certainly, one of the prominent ideas of Professor Mira was that it is absolutely mandatory to specify the mechanisms and/or processes underlying each task and inference mentioned in an architecture in order to make operational that architecture. The conjecture of the last fifteen years of joint research of Professor Mira and our team at University of Castilla-La Mancha has been that any bottom-up organization may be made operational using two biologically inspired methods called ?algorithmic lateral inhibition?, a generalization of lateral inhibition anatomical circuits, and ?accumulative computation?, a working memory related to the temporal evolution of the membrane potential. This paper is dedicated to the computational formulations of both methods, which have led to quite efficient solutions of problems related to motion-based computer vision

Modelling the stereovision-correspondence-analysis task by lateral inhibition in accumulative computation problem-solving method.

Recently, the Algorithmic Lateral Inhibition (ALI) method and the Accumulative Computation (AC) method have proven to be efficient in modelling at the knowledge level for general-motion-detection tasks in video sequences. More precisely, the task of persistent motion detection has been widely expressed by means of the AC method, whereas the ALI method has been used with the objective of moving objects detection, labelling and further tracking. This paper exploits the current knowledge of our research team on the mentioned problem-solving methods to model the Stereovision-Correspondence-Analysis (SCA) task. For this purpose, ALI and AC methods are combined into the Lateral Inhibition in Accumulative Computation (LIAC) method. The four basic subtasks, namely ?LIAC 2D Charge-Memory Calculation?, ?LIAC 2D Charge-Disparity Analysis? and ?LIAC 3D Charge-Memory Calculation? in our proposal of SCA are described in detail by inferential CommonKADS schemes. It is shown that the LIAC method may perfectly be used to solve a complex task based on motion information inherent to binocular video sequences

Lateral inhibition in accumulative computation and fuzzy sets for human fall pattern recognition in colour and infrared imagery

Fall detection is an emergent problem in pattern recognition. In this paper, a novel approach which enables to identify a type of a fall and reconstruct its characteristics is presented. The features detected include the position previous to a fall, the direction and velocity of a fall, and the postfall inactivity. Video sequences containing a possible fall are analysed image by image using the lateral inhibition in accumulative computation method.With this aim, the region of interest of human figures is examined in each image, and geometrical and kinematic characteristics for the sequence are calculated.The approach is valid in colour and in infrared video

Algorithmic lateral inhibition method in dynamic and selective visual attention task: application to moving objects detection and labelling.

In a recent article, knowledge modelling at the knowledge level for the task of moving objects detection in image sequences has been introduced. In this paper, the algorithmic lateral inhibition (ALI) method is now applied in the generic dynamic and selective visual attention (DSVA) task with the objective of moving objects detection, labelling and further tracking. The four basic subtasks, namely feature extraction, feature integration, attention building and attention reinforcement in our proposal of DSVA are described in detail by inferential CommonKADS schemes. It is shown that the ALI method, in its various forms, that is to say, recurrent and non-recurrent, temporal, spatial and spatial-temporal, may perfectly be used as a problem-solving-method in most of the subtasks involved in the DSVA task

Lateral interaction in accumulative computation

To be able to understand the motion of non-rigid objects, techniques in image processing and computer vision are essential for motion analysis. Lateral interaction in accumulative computation for extracting non-rigid blobs and shapes from an image sequence has recently been presented, as well as its application to segmentation from motion. In this paper we show an architecture consisting of five layers based on spatial and temporal coherence in visual motion analysis with application to visual surveillance. The LIAC method used in general task ?spatio-temporal coherent shape building? consists in (a) spatial coherence for brightness-based image segmentation, (b) temporal coherence for motion-based pixel charge computation, (c) spatial coherence for charge-based pixel charge computation, (d) spatial coherence for charge-based blob fusion, and, (e) spatial coherence for charge-based shape fusion. In our case, temporal coherence (in accumulative computation) is understood as a measure of frame to frame motion persistency on a pixel, whilst spatial coherence (in lateral interaction) is a measure of pixel to neighbouring pixels accumulative charge comparison

A conceptual frame with two neural mechanisms to model selective visual attention processes

An important problem in artificial intelligence (AI) is to find calculation procedures to save the semantic gap between the analytic formulations of the neuronal models and the concepts of the natural language used to describe the cognitive processes. In this work we explore a way of saving this gap for the case of the attentional processes, consisting in (1) proposing in first place a conceptual model of the attention double bottom-up/top-down organization, (2) proposing afterwards a neurophysiological model of the cortical and sub-cortical involved structures, (3) establishing the correspondences between the entities of (1) and (2), (4) operationalizing the model by using biologically inspired calculation mechanisms (algorithmic lateral inhibition and accumulative computation) formulated at symbolic level, and, (5) assessing the validity of the proposal by accommodating the works of the research team on diverse aspects of attention associated to visual surveillance tasks. The results obtained support in a reasonable way the validity of the proposal and enable its application in surveillance tasks different from the ones considered in this work. In particular, this is the case when linking the geometric descriptions of a scene with the corresponding activity level