Top-Down Control of Visual Attention in Object Detection

Current computational models of visual attention focus on bottom-up information and ignore scene context. However, studies in visual cognition show that humans use context to facilitate object detection in natural scenes by directing their attention or eyes to diagnostic regions. Here we propose a model of attention guidance based on global scene configuration. We show that the statistics of low-level features across the scene image determine where a specific object (e.g. a person) should be located. Human eye movements show that regions chosen by the top-down model agree with regions scrutinized by human observers performing a visual search task for people. The results validate the proposition that top-down information from visual context modulates the saliency of image regions during the task of object detection. Contextual information provides a shortcut for efficient object detection systems

'Talk to Me!': Empowering students with a vision impairment through audio e-assessment feedback

As educators, we aim for students to seek, identify, and utilize a range of feedback to gain an understanding of their present performance in relation to learning goals, and ultimately to identify and use tools to close the gap between present and desired performance. We strive for all students to be their 'own first assessors'—intelligent deciders—and develop the independence to self-assess the quality of their own work when they leave higher education institutions and enter the workforce. For students with a print disability such as vision impairment or blindness, traditional forms of feedback may not be successful in providing the information they need to close the gap. The most important issue for these students is access to feedback and agency in the feedback conversation. It is incumbent on higher education educators to find ways to provide equity of access to the provision and reception of feedback for all students. As such, this chapter explores ways for providing feedback to students with a vision impairment to ensure they are able to contextualize and utilize the feedback to improve learning outcomes. This is achieved by aligning the use of mobile technologies and audio feedback with the key principles of connectivism—autonomy, connectedness, diversity, and openness—to provide educators with recommendations