Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ADS.COM!Vision-List-Request From: Vision-List-Request@ADS.COM (Vision-List moderator Phil Kahn) Newsgroups: comp.ai.vision Subject: Vision-List delayed redistribution Message-ID: <8903090400.AA25869@deimos.ads.com> Date: 8 Mar 89 19:00:09 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: Vision-List@ADS.COM Distribution: inet Organization: The Internet Lines: 133 Approved: vision-list@ads.com Vision-List Digest Wed Mar 08 11:00:09 PDT 89 - Send submissions to Vision-List@ADS.COM - Send requests for list membership to Vision-List-Request@ADS.COM Today's Topics: Percent visual input? OBVIUS (vision software) VIEWS: Image Processing Toolkit for Suns? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Mar 89 11:26 EDT From: "RCSDY::YOUNG"@gmr.com Subject: Percent visual input? Since I am unsure how to reach him via e-mail, I am replying directly to VisionNet to Damian Conway's prior question: > Is the following sentence meaningful? > "Unimpaired humans receive XX% of all sensory input visually." Consider there are an estimated 10^9 neurons in the primary visual area (V1) in cortex, another 10^9 (or possibly much more) in the secondary visual cortical areas (V2-V4, peristriate, parastriate). Subcortical areas such as LGN we can disregard, since there are only 10^6 neurons in each optic tract, and only 10^8 in each eye. In addition we have motion and eye movement processing over in the superior colliculus and its associated pathways (perhaps about another 10^9). There are altogether at least 20 different known retinotopic maps in the cortex, not all of which have complete number estimates. Total cortex is generally thought to contain about 10^10 neurons, although this figure is a likely underestimate. The usual estimate of vision-related neurons is made by considering just the occipital area of the brain, where the visual sensory paths terminate, which is known to contain about 70 percent of all the neurons in the human central nervous system (M. D. Levine, Vision in Man and Machine, 1985, p. 84). So 70% would be the most widely quoted figure. However if you also include association cortex which associates visual information with auditory and tactile information the total figure would be higher. Also what about the motor pathways controlling eye movements, with visual re-afference which is necessary to maintain visual stability with eye movements? So my own estimate is that final figure would be that about 80% of the neurons in the brain are involved with vision processing -- we are indeed visual creatures! Dick Young Machine Perception Laboratory General Motors Research Labs ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Mar 89 17:30:29 EST From: David Heeger Subject: OBVIUS (vision software) OBVIUS (Object-Based Vision and Image Understanding System) is an extension to Common Lisp and CLOS (Common Lisp Object System) for manipulating pictorially displayable objects. The system provides a flexible interactive user interface for working with images. In addition, by using Lisp as its primary language, the system is able to take advantage of the interpretive lisp environment (the ``listener''), object-oriented programming, and the extensibility provided by incremental compilation. OBVIUS runs on Sun 3 (using Lucid Lisp) and Symbolics machines. The basic functionality of OBVIUS is to present certain lisp objects to the user pictorially. These objects are refered to as {\bf viewables}. Some examples of viewables are monochrome images, color images, one bit images, complex images, image pyramids, image sequences, filters and discrete functions. A {\bf picture} is a pictorial representation of a viewable. Note that a given viewable may be compatible with several different picture types. For example, a floating point image may be displayed as an eight bit grayscale picture, as a one bit dithered picture, or as a graphical surface plot. OBVIUS also provides postscript hardcopy output of pictures. In the typical mode of interaction, the user types an expression to the lisp listener and it returns a viewable as a result. The top-level lisp print function then automatically displays a picture of the viewable in a window. Each window contains a circular stack of pictures. Standard stack manipulation operations are provided via mouse clicks (e.g., cycle, pop, and push). Commonly used operations such as histogram and zoom are also provided via mouse clicks. OBVIUS provides a library of image processing routines (e.g., point operations, image statistics, convolutions, fourier transforms). All of the operations are defined on all of the viewable types. The low-level floating point operations on the Suns are implemented in C for speed. OBVIUS also provides a library of functions for synthesizing images. In addition, it is straightforward to add new operations and new viewable and picture types. OBVIUS is now ready for beta-test distribution (available via anonymous ftp from whitechapel.media.mit.edu). Since it is currently an in-house product it comes without warrantee or support. For more information contact David Heeger (heeger@media-lab.media.mit.edu) of the MIT Media Lab Vision Science Group, at (617) 253-0611. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Mar 89 21:26:48 EST From: achhabra@ucesp1.ece.uc.edu (Atul Chhabra) Subject: VIEWS: Image Processing Toolkit for Suns? At a recent conference, I saw a brochure about VIEWS, an image processing toolkit for SUNs. This is a public domain software developed at Lawrence Livermore Labs. The brochure contained the name and phone number of the contact person at Lawrence Livermore. I have misplaced the brochure. Could someone on the net email me the name, phone number, and the email address of the distributor of VIEWS. Thanks Atul Chhabra, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering, ML 030, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0030. voice: (513)556-4766 INTERNET: achhabra@ucesp1.ece.uc.edu OR achhabra@uceng.uc.edu ------------------------------ End of VISION-LIST ********************