Reduction of the blocking effect in block-coded images using a model of early human vision

We propose a method, based on lowpass and bandpass components of Granrath's early human vision model, which reduces the blocking effect in block-coded images. The method consists of a lowpass filtering stage to smooth out the blocking effect and a contrast-enhancement stage to increase contrast in the restored image. Experimental results of the method show better performance than that of conventional methods for reducing blocking effects.     

自然图像效率编码

效率编码理论认为经过漫长历史进化,大脑感知系统有效地适应了自然环境.自然图像统计规律计算建模对视觉信息处理机理的理解大有裨益.本文简要回顾近期视觉系统对自然图像效率编码的最新进展.     

Gradient direction dependencies in natural images

We have used information-theoretic measures to compute the amount of dependency which exists between two and three gradient directions at separate locations in an ensemble of natural images. Control experiments were performed on other image classes: phase randomized natural images, whitened natural images and Gaussian noise images. The results show that, for an ensemble of natural images, the amount of 2-point and 3-point gradient direction dependency is equivalent to its ensemble of phase randomized natural images. Therefore, we conclude that the amount of gradient direction dependency in an ensemble of natural images is determined by the ensemble's mean power spectrum rather than the phase spectra of the images. Moreover, this relationship does not extend to individual natural images, the amount of dependency between gradient magnitudes, or gradient directions at high gradient magnitude locations.     

Comparison of the biological properties of purified natural and recombinant human interleukin-2

We compared the biological properties of the purified recombinant human IL-2 derived from E. coli with those of purified natural IL-2. Both had almost the same specific in vitro activities on a weight basis to support long-term proliferation of IL-2 dependent human peripheral blood lymphocytes, a mouse killer T cell line, and a mouse natural killer cell line; induce killer cells in normal mouse spleen cells; and induce antibody forming cells in nude mouse spleen cells. No differences in these biological activities were found between two forms of natural IL-2 that were separable by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography.     

Association and dissociation properties of natural human interferon γ

The properties of natural human interferon γ (IFN-γ) molecules dissolved in protein-denaturing and non-denaturing solvents were examined by high-performance size-exclusion chromatography on a gel permeation column. IFN-γ and tritium-labeled IFN-γ molecules formed either dimers (>90.5%) with the molecular mass of 60 kDa or probably tetramers (<9.5%) with the molecular mass of approximately 100 kDa in non-denaturing solvents, and no monomer was detected. These oligomers were dissociated in protein-denaturing solvents such as 6 M guanidine hydrochloride, and IFN-γ existed as monomers. There is no effect on formation of the monomer based on the dissociation of oligomers by acid treatment at pH 4.0. The monomers in protein-denaturing solvents formed dimers by association when applied to a column equilibrated with a non-denaturing solvent of phosphate buffer, pH 7.0. In conclusion, natural human IFN-γ forms oligomers, particularly dimers, in non-denaturing solution, and this oligomer formation is a reversible reaction.     

The human visual system is optimised for processing the spatial information in natural visual images

A fundamental tenet of visual science is that the detailed properties of visual systems are not capricious accidents, but are closely matched by evolution and neonatal experience to the environments and lifestyles in which those visual systems must work. This has been shown most convincingly for fish and insects. For mammalian vision, however, this tenet is based more upon theoretical arguments than upon direct observations. Here, we describe experiments that require human observers to discriminate between pictures of slightly different faces or objects. These are produced by a morphing technique that allows small, quantifiable changes to be made in the stimulus images. The independent variable is designed to give increasing deviation from natural visual scenes, and is a measure of the Fourier composition of the image (its second-order statistics). Performance in these tests was best when the pictures had natural second-order spatial statistics, and degraded when the images were made less natural. Furthermore, performance can be explained with a simple model of contrast coding, based upon the properties of simple cells in the mammalian visual cortex. The findings thus provide direct empirical support for the notion that human spatial vision is optimised to the second-order statistics of the optical environment.     

Visual neuroscience: Resonating to natural images

Visual neurons may be optimized to produce sparse, distributed responses to natural scenes. This proposal, along with recent results from monkey fMRI and electrophysiology, may force us to re-interpret many neuroimaging results.     

Matched filters in human vision

The technique of subthreshold addition of sinusoidal gratings was used to analyse the visual system of man during the perception of edges, lines, and bars. The experimentally obtained sensitivity function varies in close relationship to the test pattern, and can be factorized into the conjugate complex spectrum of the test pattern at threshold and a pattern-invariant function of spatial frequency. Interpreting the sensitivity function as transfer function, which is possible under certain conditions, we can describe the visual system as a matched filter which extracts an input signal contaminated with noise of specified spectral energy density. Questions discussed refer to the spatial operations occurring in matched filters, the relationship between the modulation transfer function for sine-wave gratings and the pattern-invariant transfer component, the exact determination of elements within the theoretical concept, and the realization of matched filters by the nervous system.These investigations were supported as a project of the Sonderforschungsbereich 50 Kybernetik, München.     

Computational aspects of motion perception in natural and artificial vision systems.

In this paper a computational scheme for motion perception in artificial and natural vision systems is described. The scheme is motivated by a mathematical analysis in which first-order spatial properties of optical flow, such as singular points and elementary components of optical flow, are shown to be salient features for the computation and analysis of visual motion. The fact that different methods for the computation of optical flow produce similar results is explained in terms of the simple spatial structure of the image motion of rigid bodies. Singular points and elementary flow components are used to compute motion parameters, such as time-to-collision and angular velocity, and also to segment the visual field into areas which correspond to different motions. Then a number of biological implications are discussed. Electrophysiological findings suggest that the brain perceives visual motion by detecting and analysing optical flow components. However, the cortical neurons, which seem to detect elementary flow components, are not able to extract these components from more complex flows. A simple model for the organization of the receptive field of these cells, which is consistent with anatomical and electrophysiological data, is described at the end of the paper.     

Feature-based image segmentation in human vision

Experiments are described which indicate that the integration of high-precision shape information along a bright line is blocked by the presence of certain image features. All the features involved have three properties: (1) they are points where contours are not smooth (i.e. not twice differentiable) within the limits set by the finite space constants of visual processes; (2) they are all points that are emphasized in the responses of certain classes of circularly symmetric bandpass spatial filter; and (3) they are all significant for three-dimensional shape analysis. The results are interpreted as implying an inflexible segmentation of the contour image before detailed shape analysis.     

Two spatio-temporal filters in human vision

1. We have studied visual detection of a circular target moving across a spatially and/or temporally modulated background. Illumination, I _t , for threshold detection of the target has been measured as a function of background modulation frequency and changes in I _t associated with background modulation provide a means of determining the frequency response characteristics of visual channels. 2. Temporal frequency responses obtained with temporally modulated, spatially uniform backgrounds have pass-band characteristics and the temporal frequency for peak response increases with increase in mean background illumination. These temporal frequency responses resemble those of the de Lange (1954) filter, but the latter incorporates the incremental thresholds for steady backgrounds. 3. The amplitude of this temporal response saturates at low (40%) background modulation, decreases to zero as the target velocity falls to zero, and is maximum for a circular target of diameter 2°. 4. The spatial characteristics of this temporal filter were measured with a background field consisting of alternate steady and flickering bars. The resulting spatial frequency curve peaks at 1 cycle deg^-1 for all background illuminations and is independent of the background grating orientation. This spatial response differs significantly from the IMG spatial functions observed with a background grating (Barbur and Ruddock, 1980). 5. The spatial and temporal responses reviewed above exhibit similar parametric variations and we therefore associate them with a single spatiotemporal filter, ST2. 6. A second temporal response, with low-pass frequency characteristics, was observed with a background field consisting of two matched gratings, presented in spatial and temporal antiphase. This response has parametric properties similar to those of the IMG spatial response described previously by Barbur and Ruddock (1980), thus we associated the two sets of data with a single spatio-temporal filter, ST1. 7. We show that the ST2 responses can be obtained by combining ST1 responses, and we present a network incorporating the two filters. 8. We review other psychophysical studies which imply the activity of two spatio-temporal filters with properties of the kind revealed in our studies. We argue that filter ST1 has properties equivalent to those of X-type and filter ST2 has properties equivalent to those of Y-type electrophysiological mechanisms.     

Adaptive filter mechanisms in human vision

As a result of our experiments we find that the absolute visibility of simple edge and bar patterns is determined by a cooperation between the maximum amplitude and the difference between the maximum gradients occurring in the patterns. Proceeding from the assumption that the second spatial derivative represents a basic mechanism in our visual system (Mach-bands, effects of masking between narrow lines and sharp edges, existence of even-symmetrical receptive fields in the retina and the LGN), we suggest a nonlinear summation device which produces the difference between gradients as a sum over the second derivative. Expressed in a slightly different manner we assume that the sum over the excitation embodied in a Mach-band acts as criterion during the absolute visibility of edge and bar patterns.     

Single unit approaches to human vision and memory

Research on the visual system focuses on using electrophysiology, pharmacology and other invasive tools in animal models. Non-invasive tools such as scalp electroencephalography and imaging allow examining humans but show a much lower spatial and/or temporal resolution. Under special clinical conditions, it is possible to monitor single-unit activity in humans when invasive procedures are required due to particular pathological conditions including epilepsy and Parkinson's disease. We review our knowledge about the visual system and visual memories in the human brain at the single neuron level. The properties of the human brain seem to be broadly compatible with the knowledge derived from animal models. The possibility of examining high-resolution brain activity in conscious human subjects allows investigators to ask novel questions that are challenging to address in animal models.     

Stereoscopic and contrast-defined motion in human vision.

There is considerable evidence for the existence of a specialized mechanism in human vision for detecting moving contrast modulations and some evidence for a mechanism for detecting moving stereoscopic depth modulations. It is unclear whether a single second-order motion mechanism detects both types of stimulus or whether they are detected separately. We show that sensitivity to stereo-defined motion resembles that to contrast-defined motion in two important ways. First, when a missing-fundamental disparity waveform is moved in steps of 0.25 cycles, its perceived direction tends to reverse. This is a property of both luminance-defined and contrast-defined motion and is consistent with independent detection of motion at different spatial scales. Second, thresholds for detecting the direction of a smoothly drifting sinusoidal disparity modulation are much higher than those for detecting its orientation. This is a property of contrast-modulated gratings but not luminance-modulated gratings, for which the two thresholds are normally identical. The results suggest that stereo-defined and contrast-defined motion stimuli are detected either by a common mechanism or by separate mechanisms sharing a common principle of operation.     

Two spatio-temporal filters in human vision

We have used the psychophysical methods described in the first paper of this series (Holliday and Ruddock, 1983) to determine selected spatial and temporal response characteristics of the ST1 and ST2 filters for subjects suffering visual defects. Data are given for 19 amblyopes, an albino and a hemianope, and comparison data are also given for a number of subjects with normal vision. The ST1 spatial responses for both the "normal" and "amblyopic" eyes of 12 convergent strabismic amblyopes are displaced to low spatial frequencies compared to the normal curve, which implies that there is a loss of fine spatial tuning. In all but one subject, the curve for the "amblyopic" eye peaks at a spatial frequency lower than that for the "normal" eye, thus the former deviates further from the normal pattern than the latter. The ST1 spatial responses of 6 refractive amblyopes are also displaced to the low frequency side of the normal curve, although on average the shift is smaller than in the case of the strabismic amblyopes. For each subject, the response curve of the "amblyopic" eye peaks at a lower spatial frequency than does that for the "normal" eye. ST1 spatial responses were measured for targets located up to 30 degrees off-axis along the horizontal meridian and sample data are given for one strabismic and one refractive amblyope and for two normal subjects. It is concluded from these data that the changes in the spatial responses associated with amblyopia do not simply reflect eccentric fixation of the target. The ST2 spatial response was measured for the "normal" and "amblyopic" eyes of 9 amblyopes (7 strabismic and 2 refractive). There is no significant difference between the average amblyopic response and that of normal subjects, and only in one case does the response for an "amblyopic" eye peak at a frequency lower than the peak frequency for normal vision. The ST2 temporal response for 9 amblyopes shows no systematic deviations from the normal response. For the albino, both the ST1 and ST2 spatial responses peak at around 0.3 cycles deg-1, and both curves are displaced considerably to the low spatial frequency side of the normal ST2 spatial response. The albino's ST2 temporal response is essentially normal. Measurements for the hemianope's "blind" hemifield under conditions appropriate to the isolation of the ST1 and ST2 spatial responses reveal no tuning curves. The ST2 temporal response for the "blind" hemifield, however, is of large amplitude, with a peak at 2 Hz, well below the normal frequency response peak. It is argued that the loss of fine spatial tuning which occurs in the ST1, but not the ST2, spatial responses of the amblyopes is consistent with the sequential organisation of these two filter classes proposed by Holliday and Ruddock (1983). Further, for the only two subjects whose ST2 spatial response curves are displaced to abnormally low frequencies (the albino and a strabismic amblyope) the ST1 spatial response is shifted to low spatial frequencies compared to the normal ST2 curve...     

Correlation of biophysical properties and cell surface antigenic profile of Percoll gradient-separated human natural killer cells

Human peripheral blood nylon wool nonadherent lymphocytes were fractionated according to cellular density on discontinuous Percoll gradients. The various fractions of cells obtained by this procedure were then analyzed to correlate morphology, cytotoxicity, light scatter properties and antigenic profile. The majority of natural killer (NK) cell activity was manifested by light density lymphocytes, which demonstrated relatively high light scatter characteristics, large granular lymphocyte morphology, and expressed the phenotypes: Leu 11+(B73.1+), Leu 7-; Leu 11+(B73.1+), Leu 7+, and Leu 11+(B73.1+), Leu 2a+ (low density), Leu 4-. The denser fractions of Percoll (fractions 3-4) tended to show lower NK activity, fewer large granular lymphocytes, lower light scatter profiles, and to selectively localize the subpopulations of lymphocytes with the phenotypes: Leu 11-, Leu 7+, Leu 4+, and Leu 11-, Leu 7+, Leu 2a+ (high density).     

Conceptual and visual features contribute to visual memory for natural images

We examined the role of conceptual and visual similarity in a memory task for natural images. The important novelty of our approach was that visual similarity was determined using an algorithm [1] instead of being judged subjectively. This similarity index takes colours and spatial frequencies into account. For each target, four distractors were selected that were (1) conceptually and visually similar, (2) only conceptually similar, (3) only visually similar, or (4) neither conceptually nor visually similar to the target image. Participants viewed 219 images with the instruction to memorize them. Memory for a subset of these images was tested subsequently. In Experiment 1, participants performed a two-alternative forced choice recognition task and in Experiment 2, a yes/no-recognition task. In Experiment 3, testing occurred after a delay of one week. We analyzed the distribution of errors depending on distractor type. Performance was lowest when the distractor image was conceptually and visually similar to the target image, indicating that both factors matter in such a memory task. After delayed testing, these differences disappeared. Overall performance was high, indicating a large-capacity, detailed visual long-term memory.