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A Novel Saliency Prediction Method Based on Fast Radial Symmetry Transform and Its Generalization

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Abstract

Symmetry has been observed as an important indicator of visual attention. In this paper, we propose a novel saliency prediction method based on fast radial symmetry transform (FRST) and its generalization (GFRST). We made two contributions. First, a novel saliency predictor based on FRST is proposed. The new approach does not require a whole set of visual features (intensity, color, orientation) as in most previous works but uses only symmetry and center bias to model human fixations at the behavioral level. The new model is shown to have higher prediction accuracy and lower computational complexity than an existing saliency prediction method based on symmetry. Second, we propose using GFRST for predicting visual attention. GFRST is shown to outperform FRST, as it can detect symmetries distorted by parallel projection.

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Acknowledgments

The work described in this paper was supported by a Research Studentship and a grant from CityU (Project No. 7004240). We thank Mr. Yang Lou for proofreading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong, China

    Jiayu Liang

  2. Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China

    Shiu Yin Yuen

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  1. Jiayu Liang
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Correspondence to Shiu Yin Yuen.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Liang, J., Yuen, S.Y. A Novel Saliency Prediction Method Based on Fast Radial Symmetry Transform and Its Generalization. Cogn Comput 8, 693–702 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12559-016-9406-8

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