Where to Look Next? Combining Static and Dynamic Proto-objects in a TVA-based Model of Visual Attention

To decide ``Where to look next ?'' is a central function of the attention system of humans, animals and robots. Control of attention depends on three factors, that is, low-level static and dynamic visual features of the environment (bottom-up), medium-level visual features of proto-objects and the task (top-down). We present a novel integrated computational model that includes all these factors in a coherent architecture based on findings and constraints from the primate visual system. The model combines spatially inhomogeneous processing of static features, spatio-temporal motion features and task-dependent priority control in the form of the first computational implementation of saliency computation as specified by the ``Theory of Visual Attention'' (TVA, [7]). Importantly, static and dynamic processing streams are fused at the level of visual proto-objects, that is, ellipsoidal visual units that have the additional medium-level features of position, size, shape a...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: COGCOM
• Authors: Marco Wischnewski, Anna Belardinelli, Werner X. Schneider, Jochen J. Steil
• Keywords: Attentional Priorities, COGCOM 2010, Visual, Visual Attention