Motion-Driven Segmentation by Competitive Neural Processing

摘要

Bio-inspired energy models compute motion along the lines suggested by the neurophysiological studies of V1 and MT areas in both monkeys and humans: neural populations extract the structure of motion from local competition among MT-like cells. We describe here a neural structure that works as a dynamic filter above this MT layer for image segmentation and takes advantage of neural population coding in the cortical processing areas. We apply the model to the real-life case of an automatic watch-out system for car-overtaking situations seen from the rear-view mirror. The ego-motion of the host car induces a global motion pattern whereas an overtaking vehicle produces a pattern that contrasts highly with this global ego-motion field. We describe how a simple, competitive, neural processing scheme can take full advantage of this motion structure for segmenting overtaking-cars