Computer Simulation Of Preperceptual Processing Of Form.

It is considered reasonable to suppose that highly developed sensory systems such as the human visual system will have become roughly optimised by evolution. It is therefore desirable to attempt to understand the mechanisms of such systems and to consider their application in digital image processing. Over the last few years new techniques have been employed by neurophysiologists and anatomists to explore the building bricks of the 'image pro-cessing' which precedes the act of perception. The author has pieced together various fragments of data to devise a computer simulation of these preperceptual processes. The simulation produces fragmentary line and edge information which is fully coded in terms of location, strength and orientation. It also associates connected groups of fragmentary lines and edges and analyses them statistically in terms of number, mean strength and fluctuation of strength. The coding of the fragmentary perceptual input data is such that virtually any question may be addressed to facilitate recognition of partially obscured or complex objects. The perceptual input plane is basically quiet, containing only profile data in many situations. It is therefore admirably suited to extraction of dynamic behaviour of associated profiles. Spectral coding may also be incorporated, if desired. The paper discusses in some depth the components of interactive processing which have been used in the simulation and demonstrates the variety of forms of 'perceptual' data available.