Slow Feature Extraction Algorithm Based on Visual Selection Consistency Continuity and Its Application

The conventional slow feature analysis (SFA) algorithm has no support of computational theory of vision for primates, nor does it have the ability to learn the global features with visual selection consistency continuity. And what is more, the algorithm is highly complex. Based on this, Slow Feature Extraction Algorithm Based on Visual selection consistency continuity and Its Application was proposed. Inspired by the visual selection consistency continuity theory for primates, this paper replaced the principal component analysis (PCA) method of the conventional SFA algorithm with the myTICA method, extracted the Gabor basis functions of natural images, initialized the basis function family; it used the feature basis expansion algorithm based on visual selection consistency continuity (the VSCC_FBEA algorithm) to replace the polynomial expansion method in the original SFA algorithm to generates the Gabor basis functions of features with long and short-term visual selectivity in the family of basis functions, which solved the drawbacks of the polynomial prediction algorithm; it also designed the Lipschitz consistency constraint, and proposed the Lipschitz-Orthogonal-Pruning-Method (LOPM algorithm) to optimize the basis function family into an over-complete family of basis functions. In addition, this paper used the feature expression method based on visual invariance theory (visual invariance theory -FEM) to establish the set of features of natural images with visual selection consistency continuity. Subsequently, it adopted three error evaluation methods and mySFA classification method to evaluate the proposed algorithm. According to the experimental results, the proposed algorithm showed good prediction performance with respect to the LSVRC2012 data set; compared with the SFA, GSFA, TICA, myICA and mySFA algorithms, the proposed algorithm is correct and feasible; when the classification threshold of the algorithm was set at 8.0, the recognition rate of the proposed algorithm reached 99.66%, and neither of the false recognition rate and the false rejection rate was higher than 0.33%. The proposed algorithm has good performance in prediction and classification, and also shows good anti-noise capacity under limited noise conditions.

Managing Cashew Rootstock Grafting Size Through Organic Fertilizers

Seed born cashew (Anacardium occidentale L) seedlings are planted directly when they are produced from polyclonal orchards. In a common scenario, cashew seedlings are grafted before transplanting. For this purpose, adjusting the size between scions and rootstock is highly important for the success of grafts and it can be achieved through a visual selection of scions. However, when working with large numbers of seedlings physical and visual selection becomes laborious and time consuming for the workers. Therefore, creating uniformity in seedlings size before grafting is crucial. We present experimental results showing the linear regression between the fertilization level and seedling stem size. Two experiments were conducted in Mozambique: One at Nassuruma cashew Research Station, Nampula province, following a Completely Randonmized Block Design (CRBD), seven treatments, ten bags per treatment and five replicates. The treatments consisted of a fertilizer organically composted from cashew nut shells and applied at rates of 0, 4, 8, 16, 32, 40 and 48% of the total amount of soil in each bag. The second experiment was carried out at Chizavane nursery, in Gaza Province, also based on CRBD, in factorial arrangement of 4 and 3 levels of Kelp and Stimu biofertilizers respectively. Two stem size variables, diameter and height, were considered and data collected at 120 days after seedlings emergence in Nampula and 45 days after emergence in Gaza Province. Polynomial or simple regression analysis model for stem diameter and plant height was performed. The stem diameter was linearly described as an increasing equation. The height was also linearly related to fertilizer but following a decreased equation. We concluded that applying appropriate dosage of fertilizer in the soil or on the leaves could adjust the stem size of the rootstock required for grafting and therefore adjust the stem to the size of scions available. The treatments with high level of Kelp, Stimu and cashew compost fertilization resulted in increase of 8,5%, 6% and 16,6% of diameter respectively. However, the treatments caused a reduction of height at rate of 14,3%, 3,2% and 25,08% respectively. The stem and scion size adjustment are highly important for increasing the grafting success rate in a cashew nursery.

Visual selective attention and the control of tracking eye movements: a critical review

People’s eyes are directed at objects of interest with the aim of acquiring visual information. However, processing this information is constrained in capacity, requiring task-driven and salience-driven attentional mechanisms to select few among the many available objects. A wealth of behavioral and neurophysiological evidence has demonstrated that visual selection and the motor selection of saccade targets rely on shared mechanisms. This coupling supports the premotor theory of visual attention put forth more than 30 years ago, postulating visual selection as a necessary stage in motor selection. In this review, we examine to which extent the coupling of visual and motor selection observed with saccades is replicated during ocular tracking. Ocular tracking combines catch-up saccades and smooth pursuit to foveate a moving object. We find evidence that ocular tracking requires visual selection of the speed and direction of the moving target, but the position of the motion signal may not coincide with the position of the pursuit target. Further, visual and motor selection can be spatially decoupled when pursuit is initiated (open-loop pursuit). We propose that a main function of coupled visual and motor selection is to serve the coordination of catch-up saccades and pursuit eye movements. A simple race-to-threshold model is proposed to explain the variable coupling of visual selection during pursuit, catch-up and regular saccades, while generating testable predictions. We discuss pending issues, such as disentangling visual selection from preattentive visual processing and response selection, and the pinpointing of visual selection mechanisms, which have begun to be addressed in the neurophysiological literature.

Dissociable Cortical and Subcortical Mechanisms for Mediating the Influences of Visual Cues on Microsaccadic Eye Movements

Visual selection in primates is intricately linked to eye movements, which are generated by a network of cortical and subcortical neural circuits. When visual selection is performed covertly, without foveating eye movements toward the selected targets, a class of fixational eye movements, called microsaccades, is still involved. Microsaccades are small saccades that occur when maintaining precise gaze fixation on a stationary point, and they exhibit robust modulations in peripheral cueing paradigms used to investigate covert visual selection mechanisms. These modulations consist of changes in both microsaccade directions and frequencies after cue onsets. Over the past two decades, the properties and functional implications of these modulations have been heavily studied, revealing a potentially important role for microsaccades in mediating covert visual selection effects. However, the neural mechanisms underlying cueing effects on microsaccades are only beginning to be investigated. Here we review the available causal manipulation evidence for these effects’ cortical and subcortical substrates. In the superior colliculus (SC), activity representing peripheral visual cues strongly influences microsaccade direction, but not frequency, modulations. In the cortical frontal eye fields (FEF), activity only compensates for early reflexive effects of cues on microsaccades. Using evidence from behavior, theoretical modeling, and preliminary lesion data from the primary visual cortex and microstimulation data from the lower brainstem, we argue that the early reflexive microsaccade effects arise subcortically, downstream of the SC. Overall, studying cueing effects on microsaccades in primates represents an important opportunity to link perception, cognition, and action through unaddressed cortical-subcortical neural interactions. These interactions are also likely relevant in other sensory and motor modalities during other active behaviors.

Feature-Based Attentional Weighting and Re-weighting in the Absence of Visual Awareness

Visual attention evolved as an adaptive mechanism allowing us to cope with a rapidly changing environment. It enables the facilitated processing of relevant information, often automatically and governed by implicit motives. However, despite recent advances in understanding the relationship between consciousness and visual attention, the functional scope of unconscious attentional control is still under debate. Here, we present a novel masking paradigm in which volunteers were to distinguish between varying orientations of a briefly presented, masked grating stimulus. Combining signal detection theory and subjective measures of awareness, we show that performance on unaware trials was consistent with visual selection being weighted towards repeated orientations of Gabor patches and reallocated in response to a novel unconsciously processed orientation. This was particularly present in trials in which the prior feature was strongly weighted and only if the novel feature was invisible. Thus, our results provide evidence that invisible orientation stimuli can trigger the reallocation of history-guided visual selection weights.

Volume data segmentation using visual selection

Fast track article for IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging 2021: Visualization and Data Analysis 2021 proceedings.