by V V Alexandrov (Leningrad Institute for Informatics & Automation) & N D Gorsky (Leningrad Institute for Informatics & Automation)

This book considers computer vision to be an integral part of the artificial intelligence system. The core of the book is an analysis of possible approaches to the creation of artificial vision systems, which simulate human visual perception. Much attention is paid to the latest achievements in visual psychology and physiology, the description of the functional and structural organization of the human perception mechanism, the peculiarities of artistic perception and the expression of reality. Computer vision models based on these data are investigated. They include the processes of external data analysis, internal environmental model synthesis, and the generating of behavioristic responses based on external and internal models comparison. Computer vision system evolution resulting from environmental effects is also considered. A unique feature of this book is the authors' use of black and white, and colour prints of traditional and contemporary Russian art to illustrate their principal theses. In doing so, they introduce the reader to a particularly Russian view of the world.

• Introduction:
  • Objectives of this Book
  • The “Seeing Eye” and the “Knowing Eye”
• Image and Computer:
  • A Short History
  • The Computer's Eye
  • A Beetle and an Ant-Hill
  • Features and Models
• How Humans See the World:
  • The Eye and the Brain
  • The Level of Preattention
  • Right and Left Vision
  • Images and Words
• Conversations with the Computer:
  • From a Point to a Region
  • From a Region to an Object
  • From an Object to a Situation
• An Apologia for Vision:
  • The Evolution of Vision
  • Vision and Thinking
  • Recollection of the Future
  • Cognition through Vision
• Creating a New World:
  • From Elements to the System
  • Back to Nature
  • Who Do We Think They Are?
• Conclusions
• Plates