The Role of Fixation and Visual Attention in Object Recognition

This research project is a study of the role of fixation and visual attention in object recognition. In this project, we build an active vision system which can recognize a target object in a cluttered scene efficiently and reliably. Our system integrates visual cues like color and stereo to perform figure/ground separation, yielding candidate regions on which to focus attention. Within each image region, we use stereo to extract features that lie within a narrow disparity range about the fixation position. These selected features are then used as input to an alignment-style recognition system. We show that visual attention and fixation significantly reduce the complexity and the false identifications in model-based recognition using Alignment methods. We also demonstrate that stereo can be used effectively as a figure/ground separator without the need for accurate camera calibration

Computational limitations of model based recognition

Includes bibliographical references (p. 13-14).Cover title.Research supported by the U.S. Army Research Office. DAAL03-86-K-0171 Research supported by the Office of Naval Research under an Air Force Contract. F196128-90-C-0002Haim Shvaytser (Schweitzer), Sanjeev R. Kulkarni

Role of color in face recognition

One of the key challenges in face perception lies in determining the contribution of different cues to face identification. In this study, we focus on the role of color cues. Although color appears to be a salient attribute of faces, past research has suggested that it confers little recognition advantage for identifying people. Here we report experimental results suggesting that color cues do play a role in face recognition and their contribution becomes evident when shape cues are degraded. Under such conditions, recognition performance with color images is significantly better than that with grayscale images. Our experimental results also indicate that the contribution of color may lie not so much in providing diagnostic cues to identity as in aiding low-level image-analysis processes such as segmentation

On Computer Stereo Vision with Wire Frame Models

Coordinated Science Laboratory changed its name from Control Systems LaboratoryShould have been numbered UILU-ENG 77-2252, and that number may have been distributed on some copies.Joint Services Electronics Program / DAAB-07-72-C-0259Ope