An interpretive model of line continuation in human visual perception

Abstract Continuation is a fundamental intuitive property of perceptual grouping in line segregation. To explain this property, a hypothetical model from the standpoint of computer engineering is presented in this paper. This model includes four mechanisms (i.e. signal beaming mechanism, feedback transmitting mechanism, image partitioning mechanism, and image revising mechanism) and a temporary 3-D space (called rho-space or quotient space). The map of excitatory and inhibitory signals from an input image is first constructed by applying some functions of the so-called simple cortical cells which are sensitive to the position and orientation of the stimulus. The signal beaming mechanism and feedback transmitting mechanism interact (in human behaviours such as walking) to resolve problems such as continuity, transition, fuzziness, and ambiguity. By using these two mechanisms, the constructed map is then converted into a three-dimensional quotient space in which all the members (voxels) satisfy the equivalence relationships so that the image partitioning mechanism can accomplish the work of line segregation. The image revising mechanism is further used to eliminate the “jaggedness” caused by the signal transmission so that the final result of line segregation is consistent with the one from human observation. This interpretive model was built on a 32-bits workstation (SUN-3/160). The results of several image processing simulations suggest that the hypothetical model is feasible and reasonable.