Scene interpretation module for an active vision system

In this paper an implementation of a high level symbolic scene interpreter for an active vision system is considered. The scene interpretation module uses low level image processing and feature extraction results to achieve object recognition and to build up a 3D environment map. The module is structured to exploit spatio-temporal context provided by existing partial world interpretations and has spatial reasoning to direct gaze control and thereby achieve efficient and robust processing using spatial focus of attention. The system builds and maintains an awareness of an environment which is far larger than a single camera view. Experiments on image sequences have shown that the system can: establish its position and orientation in a partially known environment, track simple moving objects such as cups and boxes, temporally integrate recognition results to establish or forget object presence, and utilize spatial focus of attention to achieve efficient and robust object recognition. The system has been extensively tested using images from a single steerable camera viewing a simple table top scene containing box and cylinder-like objects. Work is currently progressing to further develop its competences and interface it with the Surrey active stereo vision head, GETAFIX.