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Design of a multitask neurovision processor

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Abstract

The architecture of a biologically motivated visual-information processor that can perform a variety of tasks associated with the early stages of machine vision is described. The computational operations performed by the processor emulate the spatiotemporal information-processing capabilities of certain neural-activity fields found along the human visual pathway. The state-space model of the neurovision processor is a two-dimensional nural network of densely interconnected nonlinear processing elements PE's. An individual PE represents the dynamic activity exhibited by a spatially localized population of excitatory and inhibitory nerve cells. Each PE may receive inputs from an external signal space as well as from the neighboring PE's within the network. The information embedded within the signal space is extracted by the feedforward subnet. The feedback subnet of the neurovision processor generates useful steady-state and temporal-response characteristics that can be used for spatiotemporal filtering, short-term visual memory, spatiotemporal stabilization, competitive feedback interaction, and content-addressable memory. To illustrate the versatility of the multitask processor design for machine-vision applications, a computer simulation of a simplified vision system for filtering, storing, and classifying noisy gray-level images in presented.

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Knopf, G.K., Gupta, M.M. Design of a multitask neurovision processor. J Math Imaging Vis 2, 233–250 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00118592

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