In this report, I discuss the use of vision to support concrete, everyday activity. I will argue that a variety of interesting tasks can be solved using simple and inexpen-sive vision systems. I will provide a number of working examples in the form of a state-of-the-art mobile robot, Polly, which uses vision to give primitive tours of the seventh oor of the MIT AI Laboratory. By current standards, the robot has a broad behavioral repertoire and is both simple and inexpensive (the complete robot was built for less than $20,000 using commercial board-level components). The approach I will use will be to treat the structure of the agent's activity| its task and environment|as positive resources for the vision system designer. By performing a careful analysis of task and environment, the designer can determine a broad space of mechanisms which can perform the desired activity. My principal thesis is that for a broad range of activities, the space of applicable mechanisms will be broad enough to include a number mechanisms which are simple and economical. The simplest mechanisms that solve a given problem will typically be quite spe-

According to the Perceptual Symbols Theory of cognition (Barsalou, 1999), modality-specific simulations underlie the representation of concepts. A strong prediction of this view is that perceptual processing affects conceptual processing. In this study, participants performed a perceptual detection

of the user's head. This paper concerns techniques for tracking of faces. We demonstrate that robustness and reliability can be increased by combining multiple perceptual processes such as eye blink detection, skin color histogram and cross correlation, that adapt to a variety of operating conditions. We

be used to enhance semantic processing and/or memory of 1 of 2 simultaneous items, but only if the relevant location is known at the time of the item presentation. Over two decades ago, Broadbent (1954) modified the typical immediate memory task by presenting simultaneous lists of auditory items to two

is associated with time limited perceptions. Thus coding of different percepts by synchronized spike trains entails fundamental quantum features. It is conjectured that they are related to the details of the perceptual chain rather than depending on

All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.

Abstract not found

The two-process theory of detection, search, and attention presented by Schneider and Shiffrin is tested and extended in a series of experiments. The studies demonstrate the qualitative difference between two modes of information processing: automatic detection and controlled search. They trace

The time course of perceptual choice is discussed in a model based on gradual and stochastic accumulation of information in non-linear decision units with leakage (or decay of activation) and competition through lateral inhibition. In special cases, the model becomes equivalent to a classical

in time when the central movement command is generated. Thus, actions actually seem able to affect perceptual processing. Perception and action seem to ful®l different functions: Perception processes pick up and analyse events in our environment by afferent mechanisms, whereas action processes produce