Approaches and challenges for cognitive vision systems

Abstract

A cognitive visual system is generally intended to work robustly under varying environmental conditions, adapt to a broad range of unforeseen changes, and even exhibit prospective behavior like systematically anticipating possible visual events. These properties are unquestionably out of reach of currently available solutions. To analyze the reasons underlying this failure, in this paper we develop the idea of a vision system that flexibly controls the order and the accessibility of visual processes during operation. Vision is hereby understood as the dynamic process of selective adaptation of visual parameters and modules as a function of underlying goals or intentions. This perspective requires a specific architectural organization, since vision is then a continuous balance between the sensory stimulation and internally generated information. Furthermore, the consideration of intrinsic resource limitations and their organization by means of an appropriate control substrate become a centerpiece for the creation of truly cognitive vision systems. We outline the main concepts that are required for the development of such systems, and discuss modern approaches to a few selected vision subproblems like image segmentation, item tracking and visual object classification from the perspective of their integration and recruitment into a cognitive vision system. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009.