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Cognitive mechanism related to line drawings and its applications in intelligent process of visual media: a survey

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Abstract

Line drawings, as a concise form, can be recognized by infants and even chimpanzees. Recently, how the visual system processes line-drawings attracts more and more attention from psychology, cognitive science and computer science. The neuroscientific studies revealed that line drawings generate similar neural actions as color photographs, which give insights on how to efficiently process big media data. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey on line drawing studies, including cognitive mechanism of visual perception, computational models in computer vision and intelligent process in diverse media applications. Major debates, challenges and solutions that have been addressed over the years are discussed. Finally some of the ensuing challenges in line drawing studies are outlined.

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Correspondence to Yongjin Liu.

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Yongjin Liu received his BE from Tianjin University, China in 1998, and his PhD from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China in 2004. He is now an associate professor with Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology, Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, China. His research interests include pattern recognition, computer graphics, computational geometry and computer-aided design. He is a member of IEEE, a member of IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Communications Society.

Minjing Yu received her BE from Wuhan University, China, and she is now a PhD student at Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, China. Her research interests include image processing, computer graphics and cognitive science.

Qiufang Fu received her PhD from Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2006. She is now an associate professor in Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, with interests in implicit learning and unconscious knowledge. She intends to explore the neural and cognitive mechanisms responsible for the dissociation of implicit and explicit processes.

Wenfeng Chen received his BS from Peking University, China in 1999, and his PhD from Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China in 2005. He is now an associate professor of psychology in the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a guest Associate Editor of Frontiers in Psychology. He is interested in face learning and recognition, visual attention, emotion and cognitive modelling.

Ye Liu received her PhD from Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China in 2005. She is now an associate professor of psychology in the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She is interested in semantic knowledge representation and semantic processing, metaphor comprehension, and affective computing.

Lexing Xie is Senior Lecturer in the Research School of Computer Science at the Australian National University, Australia. She was research staff member at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York, USA from 2005 to 2010, and adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University, USA from 2007 to 2009. She received BS from Tsinghua University, China, and MS and PhD degrees from Columbia University, all in Electrical Engineering. Her research interests include applied machine learning, multimedia and social media. Her research has received five best student paper and best paper awards between 2002 and 2011. She currently serves as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, and ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications.

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Liu, Y., Yu, M., Fu, Q. et al. Cognitive mechanism related to line drawings and its applications in intelligent process of visual media: a survey. Front. Comput. Sci. 10, 216–232 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11704-015-4450-1

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