Computational visual attention systems and their cognitive foundation: A survey

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Date
2010Author
Frintrop, Simone
Rome, Erich
Christensen, Henrik I.
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Show full item recordAbstract
Based on concepts of the human visual system, computational visual attention systems aim to
detect regions of interest in images. Psychologists, neurobiologists, and computer scientists have
investigated visual attention thoroughly during the last decades and profited considerably from
each other. However, the interdisciplinarity of the topic holds not only benefits but also difficulties:
concepts of other fields are usually hard to access due to differences in vocabulary and lack of
knowledge of the relevant literature. This paper aims to bridge this gap and bring together
concepts and ideas from the different research areas. It provides an extensive survey of the
grounding psychological and biological research on visual attention as well as the current state
of the art of computational systems. Furthermore, it presents a broad range of applications
of computational attention systems in fields like computer vision, cognitive systems and mobile
robotics. We conclude with a discussion on the limitations and open questions in the field.