Connectionist Decision Systems for a Visual Search Problem
IIZUKA ´94, Fukuoka, Japan August 1-7, 1994, Invited paper
Uwe R. Zimmer - contact author
Visual Search has been investigated by many researchers inspired by the
biological fact, that the sensory elements on the mammal retina are not
equably
distributed. Therefore the focus of attention (the area of the retina
with the
highest density of sensory elements) has to be directed in a way to
efficiently
gather data according to certain criteria.
The work discussed in this article concentrates on applying a laser range
finder
instead of a silicon retina. The laser range finder is maximal focused at
any
time, but therefore a low-resolution total-scene-image, available with
camera-like devices from scratch on, cannot be used here. By adapting a
couple
of algorithms, the edge-scanning module steering the laser range finder
is able
to trace a detected edge. Based on the data scanned so far, two questions
have
to be answered. First: "Should the actual (edge-) scanning be interrupted
in
order to give another area of interest a chance of being investigated?" and
second: "Where to start a new edge-scanning, after being interrupted?".
These two decision-problems might be solved by a range of decision
systems. The
correctness of the decisions depends widely on the actual environment and
the
underlying rules may not be well initialized with a-priori knowledge. So
we will
present a version of a reinforcement decision system together with an
overall
scheme for efficiently controlling highly focused devices.