Illusory Surface Perception Using a Hierarchical Neural Network Model of the Visual Pathways

Abstract

Illusory contours occurring in the various perceptual phenomena are essentially accompanied with illusory surfaces. Accordingly, we propose a novel approach for the perception of illusory surface arising from illusory contours. The proposed method uses a hierarchical neural network model. It is likely done in the visual cortex domain in a cascade manner, and uses the response properties of neuron cells found in the visual pathways. The stimuli for forming the illusory contours are induced by modelling the end-stopped cell, and the induced stimuli for the surface perception is then formed from the extracted illusory contours. Finally, the surface perception is completed by restoring surface successively from the induced contour stimuli. The proposed model was demonstrated on a variety of illusory contour figures, and experimental results showed that the perception of illusory surface is a very successful.

This research was supported by the Yeungnam University research grants in 2004.