The Computational Approach To Vision And Motor Control

Available again, an influential book that offers a framework for understanding visual perception and considers fundamental questions about the brain and its functions. David Marr's posthumously published Vision (1982) influenced a generation of brain and cognitive scientists, inspiring many to enter the field. In Vision, Marr describes a general framework for understanding visual perception and touches on broader questions about how the brain and its functions can be studied and understood. Researchers from a range of brain and cognitive sciences have long valued Marr's creativity, intellectual power, and ability to integrate insights and data from neuroscience, psychology, and computation. This MIT Press edition makes Marr's influential work available to a new generation of students and scientists. In Marr's framework, the process of vision constructs a set of representations, starting from a description of the input image and culminating with a description of three-dimensional objects in the surrounding environment. A central theme, and one that has had far-reaching influence in both neuroscience and cognitive science, is the notion of different levels of analysis—in Marr's framework, the computational level, the algorithmic level, and the hardware implementation level. Now, thirty years later, the main problems that occupied Marr remain fundamental open problems in the study of perception. Vision provides inspiration for the continuing efforts to integrate knowledge from cognition and computation to understand vision and the brain.

An accessible yet rigorous and generously illustrated exploration of the computational approach to the study of biological vision. Seeing has puzzled scientists and philosophers for centuries and it continues to do so. This new edition of a classic text offers an accessible but rigorous introduction to the computational approach to understanding biological visual systems. The authors of Seeing, taking as their premise David Marr's statement that “to understand vision by studying only neurons is like trying to understand bird flight by studying only feathers,” make use of Marr's three different levels of analysis in the study of vision: the computational level, the algorithmic level, and the hardware implementation level. Each chapter applies this approach to a different topic in vision by examining the problems the visual system encounters in interpreting retinal images and the constraints available to solve these problems; the algorithms that can realize the solution; and the implementation of these algorithms in neurons. Seeing has been thoroughly updated for this edition and expanded to more than three times its original length. It is designed to lead the reader through the problems of vision, from the common (but mistaken) idea that seeing consists just of making pictures in the brain to the minutiae of how neurons collectively encode the visual features that underpin seeing. Although it assumes no prior knowledge of the field, some chapters present advanced material. This makes it the only textbook suitable for both undergraduate and graduate students that takes a consistently computational perspective, offering a firm conceptual basis for tackling the vast literature on vision. It covers a wide range of topics, including aftereffects, the retina, receptive fields, object recognition, brain maps, Bayesian perception, motion, color, and stereopsis. MatLab code is available on the book's website, which includes a simple demonstration of image convolution.

Since the classic studies of Woodworth (1899), the role of vision in the control of movement has been an important research topic in experimental psychology. While many early studies were concerned with the relative importance of vision and kinesthesis and/or the time it takes to use visual information, recent theoretical and technical developments have stimulated scientists to ask questions about how different sources of visual information contribute to motor control in different contexts. In this volume, articles are presented that provide a broad coverage of the current research and theory on vision and human motor learning and control. Many of the contributors are colleagues that have met over the years at the meetings and conferences concerned with human movement. They represent a wide range of affiliation and background including kinesiology, physical education, neurophysiology, cognitive psychology and neuropsychology. Thus the topic of vision and motor control is addressed from a number of different perspectives. In general, each author sets an empirical and theoretical framework for their topic, and then discusses current work from their own laboratory, and how it fits into the larger context. A synthesis chapter at the end of the volume identifies commonalities in the work and suggests directions for future experimentation.

This book encompasses part of the papers presented at the Fifth International Symposium on Motor Control held in Varna, Bulgaria from 10 to 14 June 1985. The Motor Control Symposia organized in Bulgaria became tradition following the successful initiation of Professor Gydikov and his collaborators of the previous four meetings (Sofia, 1969, Varna, 1972, Albena, 1976, Varna, 1981). More than 140 scientists participated in the last Symposium, 40 from East Europe, 15 from West Europe, 15 from USA and Canada. These Symposia established an opportunity for encounter of prom inent scientists from allover the world, representatives of different schools and mainstreams. The participation of R. Granit, W. R. Ashby, B. C. Matthews, V. S. Gurfinkel, E. V. Evarts etc., is to be mentioned. The main topics of the Symposium included: 1) Motor Unit Activity; 2) Reflex Control of Movements; 3) Central Control of Movements; 4) Posture Control; 5) Locomotion; 6) Arm Movement; 7) Motor Control Models. 43 oral presentations and 103 posters were reported, 36 of them being presented in this volume. The presented papers deal with the complex mechanisms of movement and posture control, investigations of considerable interest in recent years. This interest was prompted by the huge biological importance of the motor activity as a most common mechanism of adaptation to the environment. Motor activity is also inadvertently involved in various fields of human practice: occupational activities, including extreme conditions, motor handicaps, sports, bioprosthetic devices, bionics, robotics etc.

Available again, an influential book that offers a framework for understanding visual perception and considers fundamental questions about the brain and its functions. David Marr's posthumously published Vision (1982) influenced a generation of brain and cognitive scientists, inspiring many to enter the field. In Vision, Marr describes a general framework for understanding visual perception and touches on broader questions about how the brain and its functions can be studied and understood. Researchers from a range of brain and cognitive sciences have long valued Marr's creativity, intellectual power, and ability to integrate insights and data from neuroscience, psychology, and computation. This MIT Press edition makes Marr's influential work available to a new generation of students and scientists. In Marr's framework, the process of vision constructs a set of representations, starting from a description of the input image and culminating with a description of three-dimensional objects in the surrounding environment. A central theme, and one that has had far-reaching influence in both neuroscience and cognitive science, is the notion of different levels of analysis—in Marr's framework, the computational level, the algorithmic level, and the hardware implementation level. Now, thirty years later, the main problems that occupied Marr remain fundamental open problems in the study of perception. Vision provides inspiration for the continuing efforts to integrate knowledge from cognition and computation to understand vision and the brain.

Motion processing is an essential piece of the complex brain machinery that allows us to reconstruct the 3D layout of objects in the environment, to break camouflage, to perform scene segmentation, to estimate the ego movement, and to control our action. Although motion perception and its neural basis have been a topic of intensive research and modeling the last two decades, recent experimental evidences have stressed the dynamical aspects of motion integration and segmentation. This book presents the most recent approaches that have changed our view of biological motion processing. These new experimental evidences call for new models emphasizing the collective dynamics of large population of neurons rather than the properties of separate individual filters. Chapters will stress how the dynamics of motion processing can be used as a general approach to understand the brain dynamics itself.

Converging lines of biological, perceptual and theoretical approaches are brought together in The Science of Vision to give a new perspective on the brain sciences and vision in particular. The book contains contributions from experts in the fields of biophysics, physiology, psychology and computation. While reviewing some basic knowledge, it mainly presents fresh ideas and includes some new results. The topics range from cells through perception to neurocomputing and are treated in depth, taking the specialist to the frontiers of research. At the same time the book is written in a manner understandable to the nonspecialist, in keeping with the multidisciplinary appeal of the subject. A glossary of terms also makes the book easy to read. In our age of specialization, this integrated approach is a welcome addition to the literature which will further interdisciplinary research and shed new light on the vision sciences.

The first comprehensive presentation of the dynamical approach to cognition. It contains a representative sampling of original, current research on topics such as perception, motor control, speech and language, decision making, and development.