Recognition-by-components: A theory of human image understanding

Recognition-by-components: A theory of human image understanding (1987)

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by Irving Biederman

Venue:	Psychological Review
Citations:	550 - 8 self

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Datum	Value	Source
TITLE	Recognition-by-components: A theory of human image understanding	INFERENCE
AUTHOR NAME	Irving Biederman	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
AUTHOR AFFIL	State University of New York at Buffalo	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
ABSTRACT	The perceptual recognition of objects is conceptualized to be a process in which the image of the input is segmented at regions of deep concavity into an arrangement of simple geometric components, such as blocks, cylinders, wedges, and cones. The fundamental assumption of the proposed theory, recognition-by-components (RBC), is that a modest set of generalized-cone components, called geons (N ^ 36), can be derived from contrasts of five readily detectable properties of edges in a two-dimensional image: curvature, collinearity, symmetry, parallelism, and cotermmation. The detection of these properties is generally invariant over viewing position and image quality and consequently allows robust object perception when the image is projected from a novel viewpoint or is degraded. RBC thus provides a principled account of the heretofore undecided relation between the classic principles of perceptual organization and pattern recognition: The constraints toward regularization (Pragnanz) characterize not the complete object but the object's components. Representational power derives from an allowance of free combinations of the geons. A Principle of Componential Recovery can account for the major phenomena of object recognition: If an arrangement of two or three geons can be recovered from the input, objects can be quickly recognized even when they are occluded, novel, rotated in depth, or extensively degraded. The results from experiments on the perception of briefly presented pictures by human observers provide empirical support for the theory. Any single object can project an infinity of image configura-tions to the retina. The orientation of the object to the viewer can vary continuously, each giving rise to a different two-dimen-sional projection. The object can be occluded by other objects or texture fields, as when viewed behind foliage. The object need not be presented as a full-colored textured image but in-stead can be a simplified line drawing. Moreover, the object can even be missing some of its parts or be a novel exemplar of its	SVM HeaderParse 0.2
YEAR	1987	INFERENCE
VENUE	Psychological Review	INFERENCE
VENUE TYPE	JOURNAL	INFERENCE
PAGES	115--147	INFERENCE
VOLUME	94	INFERENCE
CITATIONS	80 found	ParsCit 1.0