Biologically Motivated Representational Schemes for Mapping Polarization Information into Visual Information

Abstract

Polarization is an important feature of electromagnetic waves, and it can provide useful information about the observed scene and objects Without appropriate instruments human eyes cannot effectively sense the polarization of light. However, it is well known that eyes of certain animal species are sensitive to light's polarization. In this project, we explore the possibility of utilizing coherent motion of tiny dots superimposed on an image as means of representing and displaying polarization information on the image, while maintaining other features of conventional images. Our results show that image segments possessing coherently moving dots pop out' in contrast with the rest of the image with randomly moving dots, and have demonstrated that coherent motion can be exploited in providing visual cues for polarization contents. The direction of motion of the dots in each segment of the image can be related to the preferred axis of polarization in that segment, and the degree of coherence can be used for representing the degree of linear polarization. In this report, first a brief background on the polarization vision will be given, and then our efforts on mapping polarization information onto visual cues using coherently moving dots will be presented.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 12, 2002
Accession Number
ADA405896

Entities

People

  • Edward N. Pugh Jr.
  • Nader Engheta

Organizations

  • University of Pennsylvania

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biological Sciences
  • Biology
  • Brightness
  • Contrast
  • Data Displays
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Direction Finding
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Environment
  • Graphical User Interface
  • Intensity
  • Linear Polarization
  • Perception
  • Polarization
  • Scattering
  • Systems Engineering

Readers

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.