ATTENTION IN ACTIVE VISION

AN ATTENTION MECHANISM CAN INFLUENCE SYSTEM BEHAVIOR AND PERFORMANCE ONLY TO THE EXTENT IN WHICH SYSTEM RESOURCES ARE ALLOCATABLE. A KEY VISUAL SYSTEM RESOURCE IS ACUITY, AND YET THIS RESOURCE IS FIXED IN CONVENTIONAL UNIFORM ACUITY MACHINE VISION. FEATURES TO BE RESOLVED BY ACTIVE VISION ARE TYPICALLY LOCALIZED WITHIN THE FOV. UNIFORM SAMPLING WITHIN THE FOV IS THUS INAPPROPRIATE; REGIONS WITH LITTLE OR NO RELEVANCE TO THE TASK ARE SAMPLED AT THE SAME RESOLUTION AS KEY FEATURES, OCCUPYING VALUABLE SIGNAL BANDWIDTH AND COMPUTATIONAL RESOURCES, AND INCREASING SYSTEM LATENCIES. FOVEAL ACTIVE VISION FEATURES IMATING SENSORS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING WITH GRADED ACUITY COUPLED WITH CONTEXT SENSITIVE SENSOR GAZE CONTROL, ANALOGOUS TO THAT PREVALENT THROUGHOUT VERTEBRATE VISION. FOVEAL SYSTEMS OPERATE MORE EFFECIENTLY THAN UNIFORM ACUITY SYSTEMS BECAUSE RESOLUTION IS TREATED AS A DYNAMICALLY ALLOCATABLE RESOURCE. WIDE FOV AND LOCALIZED HIGH ACUITY ARE SIMUTANEOUSLY SUPPORTED WHILE MINIMIZING SENSOR DATA TO THAT WHICH IS RELEVANT. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FOVEAL SYSTEMS IS HAMPERED BY THE NEED FOR ATTENTION MECHANISMS AND GAZE CONTROL WHICH ARE MORE REFINED THAN THAT OF UNIFORM ACUITY ACTIVE VISION, AND CAN RAPIDLY ALLOCATE SPATIOTEMPORAL RESOLUTION. THIS PROGRAM WILL DEVELOP ATTENTION MECHANISMS AND GAZE CONTROL TECHNIQUES FOR FOVEAL ACTIVE MACHINE VISION. THE ATTENTION MECHANISM WILL INTEGRATE WITH ALL LEVELS OF THE VISION DATA PATH TO SUPPORT RAPID PREATTENTIVE AND ATTENTIVE BEHAVIORAL RESPONSE, AND EXECUTION ON HIERARCHICAL ARCHITECTURES. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS: FOVEAL SYSTEMS OFFER IMPROVED VISION PERFORMANCE, GREATER PLATFORM INTELLIGENCE AND AUTONOMOUS OPERATION, AND LOWER SYSTEM COST. FOVEAL SYSTEMS INTERROGATE TARGETS WITH HIGH RESOLUTION TO REDUCE AMBIGUITIES AND CLASSIFICATION FALSE ALARM RATES, WHILE SUPPORTING A WIDE FOV WHICH IMPROVES MULTITARGET DETECTION AND TRACKING, AND FEATURE ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE LESS COMPUTATIONAL LATENCY AND HARDWARE THAN UNIFORM ACUITY SYSTEMS WITH THE SAME MAXIMUM RESOLUTION AND FOV. THE ATTENTION MECHANISMS DEVELOPED UNDER THIS PROGRAM WILL SERVE AS BEHAVIORAL EXECUTIVES IN ONGOING FOVEAL VISION PROJECTS, AND ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT O