A Novel System for Moving Object Detection Using Bionic Compound Eyes

Conventional moving target detection focuses on algorithms to improve detection efficiency. These algorithms pay less attention to the image acquisition means, and usually solve specific problems. This often results in poor flexibility and reusability. Insect compound eyes offer unique advantages for moving target detection and these advantages have attracted the attention of many researchers in recent years. In this paper we proposed a new system for moving target detection. We used the detection mechanism of insect compound eyes for the simulation of the characteristics of structure, control, and function. We discussed the design scheme of the system, the development of the bionic control circuit, and introduced the proposed mathematical model of bionic compound eyes for data acquisition and object detection. After this the integrated system was described and discussed. Our paper presents a novel approach for moving target detection. This approach effectively tackles some of the well-known problems in the field of view, resolution, and real-time processing problems in moving target detection.     

Locality Constrained Joint Dynamic Sparse Representation for Local Matching Based Face Recognition

Recently, Sparse Representation-based Classification (SRC) has attracted a lot of attention for its applications to various tasks, especially in biometric techniques such as face recognition. However, factors such as lighting, expression, pose and disguise variations in face images will decrease the performances of SRC and most other face recognition techniques. In order to overcome these limitations, we propose a robust face recognition method named Locality Constrained Joint Dynamic Sparse Representation-based Classification (LCJDSRC) in this paper. In our method, a face image is first partitioned into several smaller sub-images. Then, these sub-images are sparsely represented using the proposed locality constrained joint dynamic sparse representation algorithm. Finally, the representation results for all sub-images are aggregated to obtain the final recognition result. Compared with other algorithms which process each sub-image of a face image independently, the proposed algorithm regards the local matching-based face recognition as a multi-task learning problem. Thus, the latent relationships among the sub-images from the same face image are taken into account. Meanwhile, the locality information of the data is also considered in our algorithm. We evaluate our algorithm by comparing it with other state-of-the-art approaches. Extensive experiments on four benchmark face databases (ORL, Extended YaleB, AR and LFW) demonstrate the effectiveness of LCJDSRC.     

Analysis of the Organization and Overlap of the Visual Fields in the Compound Eye of the Honeybee (Apis mellifera)

Using the results of an optical analysis, a digital computer technique was developed to analyze the relative excitation produced by arbitrary figures at the rhabdom of the receptors of a compound eye. This technique was applied to several sets of figures for the honeybee (Apis mellifera) and a reasonable agreement was found with behavioral data. Similarly, the significance of a fixed cutoff angle for a visual field was investigated. It is concluded that overlap between neighboring ommatidia is highly significant for visual processing in the apposition eye, contrary to the assumptions of the mosaic theory.     

A New Color Image Encryption Scheme Using CML and a Fractional-Order Chaotic System

The chaos-based image cryptosystems have been widely investigated in recent years to provide real-time encryption and transmission. In this paper, a novel color image encryption algorithm by using coupled-map lattices (CML) and a fractional-order chaotic system is proposed to enhance the security and robustness of the encryption algorithms with a permutation-diffusion structure. To make the encryption procedure more confusing and complex, an image division-shuffling process is put forward, where the plain-image is first divided into four sub-images, and then the position of the pixels in the whole image is shuffled. In order to generate initial conditions and parameters of two chaotic systems, a 280-bit long external secret key is employed. The key space analysis, various statistical analysis, information entropy analysis, differential analysis and key sensitivity analysis are introduced to test the security of the new image encryption algorithm. The cryptosystem speed is analyzed and tested as well. Experimental results confirm that, in comparison to other image encryption schemes, the new algorithm has higher security and is fast for practical image encryption. Moreover, an extensive tolerance analysis of some common image processing operations such as noise adding, cropping, JPEG compression, rotation, brightening and darkening, has been performed on the proposed image encryption technique. Corresponding results reveal that the proposed image encryption method has good robustness against some image processing operations and geometric attacks.     

Fixational Eye Movements in the Earliest Stage of Metazoan Evolution

All known photoreceptor cells adapt to constant light stimuli, fading the retinal image when exposed to an immobile visual scene. Counter strategies are therefore necessary to prevent blindness, and in mammals this is accomplished by fixational eye movements. Cubomedusae occupy a key position for understanding the evolution of complex visual systems and their eyes are assumedly subject to the same adaptive problems as the vertebrate eye, but lack motor control of their visual system. The morphology of the visual system of cubomedusae ensures a constant orientation of the eyes and a clear division of the visual field, but thereby also a constant retinal image when exposed to stationary visual scenes. Here we show that bell contractions used for swimming in the medusae refresh the retinal image in the upper lens eye of Tripedalia cystophora. This strongly suggests that strategies comparable to fixational eye movements have evolved at the earliest metazoan stage to compensate for the intrinsic property of the photoreceptors. Since the timing and amplitude of the rhopalial movements concur with the spatial and temporal resolution of the eye it circumvents the need for post processing in the central nervous system to remove image blur.     

The neurons of the first synaptic region of the optic neuropil of the firefly,Phausis splendidula L. (Coleoptera)

On the basis of Golgi preparations the neuronal elements of the lamina ganglionaris (first synaptic region of the visual system) of the firefly. Phausis splendidula L., are described. Of the set of 8 retinula fibres that originate from each ommatidium of the compound eye, at least 6 terminate in the esternal plexiform layer. At least one, probably two, retinula fibres per ommatidium penetrate this layer to end in the medulla, via the first optic chiasma. Five types (m1-m5) of monopolar cells can be distinguished. Only two of these, m1 and m3 have dendritic fields limited to one column of the lamina mosaic; all other monopolar cells have larger fields of up to 45 mum diameter. m2 and m4 have various field spreads in different strata of the external plexiform layer. m5 has process in only one stratum of the external plexiform layer. Medulla-to-lamina cells with arborisations associated with only a single column of the lamina mosaic were not observed; medulla-to-lamina cells whose fields coincide with the various strata of the external plexiform layer were found, however. The present observations are briefly compared with those made on another beetle, Hoplia farinosa L. Comparisons with other species of insects, and the relationship between structure of the eye and structure of the lamina are also discussed.     

Regionalization in the eye of the grapsid crab Neohelice granulata (=Chasmagnathus granulatus): variation of resolution and facet diameters

Crabs have panoramic compound eyes, which can show marked regional specializations of visual acuity. These specializations are thought to be related to the particular features of the animal’s ecological environment. Modern knowledge on the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of the crabs’ visual system mainly derives from studies performed in the grapsid crab Neohelice granulata (=Chasmagnathus granulatus). However, the organization of the visual sampling elements across the eye surface of this animal had not yet been addressed. We analyzed the sampling resolution across the eye of Neohelice by measuring the pseudopupil displacement with a goniometer. In addition, we measured the facet sizes in the different regions of the eye. We found that Neohelice possesses an acute band of high vertical resolution around the eye equator and an increase in horizontal sampling resolution and lenses diameter towards the lateral side of the eye. Therefore, the analysis of the optical apparatus indicates that this crab possesses greater visual acuity around the equator and at the lateral side of the eye. These specializations are compared with those found in different species of crabs and are discussed in connection to the particular ecological features of Neohelice’s habitat.     

Receptive fields of sustained medulla neurons in crickets

Summary InGryllus campestris the visual field of the compound eye (average spatial angle 207°) and the binocular overlap of both compound eyes (46% of the total visual field) were determined with the aid of the deep pseudopupil, in order to have a reference system for the location of the receptive field of medulla neurons.A detailed quantitative analysis of two types of medulla neurons has been carried out with small test light spots given above a certain background illumination.One type of unit gave sustained off-responses. This type had a large receptive field with an off-center in the medio-posterior part of the eye and an incomplete antagonistic surround. The use of disks moved through the receptive field confirmed the antagonistic center-surround organization.The second type of unit was a sustained on-neuron. Several uniform and large receptive fields without a surround and with different locations in the eye were found. Moving targets of either contrast suppressed the firing of this cell type. In this respect, the cell's response resembled that of a certain type of ganglion cells in the vertebrate retina (uniformity detectors).This project was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, grant Ho 463/10 and Ma 374/8It is a pleasure to thank Mrs. R. Müller for excellent technical assistance, Mr. D. Kastenholz for help during the experiments, Drs. J. Kien, H. Markl and H. Wässle for useful discussions and criticism, Drs. E. Florey and L. Fischer (SFB 138) for the use of the Nicolet MED 80 computer and Mr. P. Hörmann and Mr. W. Kühnel of the finemechanics workshop of the University of Konstanz for construction of equipment. I am also grateful to Dr. K. Kirschfeld for introducing me to the use of the deep pseudopupil for visual field measurements.     

Efficient Video Panoramic Image Stitching Based on an Improved Selection of Harris Corners and a Multiple-Constraint Corner Matching

Video panoramic image stitching is extremely time-consuming among other challenges. We present a new algorithm: (i) Improved, self-adaptive selection of Harris corners. The successful stitching relies heavily on the accuracy of corner selection. We fragment each image into numerous regions and select corners within each region according to the normalized variance of region grayscales. Such a selection is self-adaptive and guarantees that corners are distributed proportional to region texture information. The possible clustering of corners is also avoided. (ii) Multiple-constraint corner matching. The traditional Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm is inefficient, especially when handling a large number of images with similar features. We filter out many inappropriate corners according to their position information, and then generate candidate matching pairs based on grayscales of adjacent regions around corners. Finally we apply multiple constraints on every two pairs to remove incorrectly matched pairs. By a significantly reduced number of iterations needed in RANSAC, the stitching can be performed in a much more efficient manner. Experiments demonstrate that (i) our corner matching is four times faster than normalized cross-correlation function (NCC) rough match in RANSAC and (ii) generated panoramas feature a smooth transition in overlapping image areas and satisfy real-time human visual requirements.     

Small and Dim Target Detection via Lateral Inhibition Filtering and Artificial Bee Colony Based Selective Visual Attention

This paper proposed a novel bionic selective visual attention mechanism to quickly select regions that contain salient objects to reduce calculations. Firstly, lateral inhibition filtering, inspired by the limulus’ ommateum, is applied to filter low-frequency noises. After the filtering operation, we use Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm based selective visual attention mechanism to obtain the interested object to carry through the following recognition operation. In order to eliminate the camera motion influence, this paper adopted ABC algorithm, a new optimization method inspired by swarm intelligence, to calculate the motion salience map to integrate with conventional visual attention. To prove the feasibility and effectiveness of our method, several experiments were conducted. First the filtering results of lateral inhibition filter were shown to illustrate its noise reducing effect, then we applied the ABC algorithm to obtain the motion features of the image sequence. The ABC algorithm is proved to be more robust and effective through the comparison between ABC algorithm and popular Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. Except for the above results, we also compared the classic visual attention mechanism and our ABC algorithm based visual attention mechanism, and the experimental results of which further verified the effectiveness of our method.     

Golgi and genetic mosaic analyses of visual system mutants in Drosophila melanogaster

We have used a Golgi staining procedure in Drosophila melanogaster to examine the structure of individual neurons in the visual systems of the Canton-S wild-type strain, of flies expressing mutations at the Glued, rough, glass, and uneven loci, all of which affect the organization of the visual system, and of genetic mosaics involving the Glued and uneven loci. We have found that the structure of the neurons studied in the wild type is quite similar to that reported for other diptera and that the mutants studied evidence a variety of abnormalities in neuronal morphology, each mutant being characterized by a different spectrum of aberrations. The genetic mosaic analysis of the Glued and uneven loci showed that the structure of individual neurons in the optic lobes is profoundly influenced by the genotype of the cells projecting to that region from the compound eye but that the final form attained by a neuron is not solely controlled by that factor.     

Eye color pigment granules in Drosophila mauritiana: mosaics produced by excision of a transposable element

Compound eyes of the white-peach (wpch) mutant strain of Drosophila mauritiana have some pigment and receptor cells with wild-type eye color pigmentation. These eyes are mosaic, because excision of a transposable element reverts wpch to wild type during the development of somatic cells. Wild-type patches have three types of pigment granule residing in three respective cell types: primary pigment cells, secondary pigment cells, and retinula (visual receptor) cells. Most aspects of these granules, as well as all other aspects of compound eye ultrastructure, are exactly as in the better studied sibling species D. melanogaster. In the wpch parts of the eye, small and giant unpigmented "pigment granules" reside in secondary pigment cells. These white granules are just like the corresponding granules of w mutant D. melanogaster. Small vs. large patches of pigmented cells likely represent excision events occurring late vs. early respectively during development. Mosaics of eye color markers have been important in developmental analyses; the ease of constructing mosaics of D. mauritiana gives this preparation advantages for mosaic analyses.     

北京萤火虫复眼的光学成像*

本文利用光学成像方法,研究了不同适应状态下的北京萤火虫phrococelia Pekininsis复眼所成的光学重叠像以及复眼的视场角。不同适应状态的晶体柱都能在距离复眼表面300-350μm之处形成光学重叠像。经过暗适应的晶体柱可以对不同物距的目标形成清晰的正重叠像,像的大小随物距的增大而减小;经明适应的晶体柱,成像物距范围变小,重叠像的像面亮度降低;经过漂白处理的晶体柱只能对一定的物距成像,像面亮度最低。 不同数目的晶体柱都能形成一重叠像,并随着其数目的增加,像面亮度也逐渐增强。根据对局部复眼视场范围的观察和其结构特征的了解,认为萤火虫单个复眼的视场角大于180度。     

Micro-optical artificial compound eyes

Natural compound eyes combine small eye volumes with a large field of view at the cost of comparatively low spatial resolution. For small invertebrates such as flies or moths, compound eyes are the perfectly adapted solution to obtaining sufficient visual information about their environment without overloading their brains with the necessary image processing. However, to date little effort has been made to adopt this principle in optics. Classical imaging always had its archetype in natural single aperture eyes which, for example, human vision is based on. But a high-resolution image is not always required. Often the focus is on very compact, robust and cheap vision systems. The main question is consequently: what is the better approach for extremely miniaturized imaging systems-just scaling of classical lens designs or being inspired by alternative imaging principles evolved by nature in the case of small insects? In this paper, it is shown that such optical systems can be achieved using state-of-the-art micro-optics technology. This enables the generation of highly precise and uniform microlens arrays and their accurate alignment to the subsequent optics-, spacing- and optoelectronics structures. The results are thin, simple and monolithic imaging devices with a high accuracy of photolithography. Two different artificial compound eye concepts for compact vision systems have been investigated in detail: the artificial apposition compound eye and the cluster eye. Novel optical design methods and characterization tools were developed to allow the layout and experimental testing of the planar micro-optical imaging systems, which were fabricated for the first time by micro-optics technology. The artificial apposition compound eye can be considered as a simple imaging optical sensor while the cluster eye is capable of becoming a valid alternative to classical bulk objectives but is much more complex than the first system.     

Computing the direction of heading from affine image flow

Observers moving through a three-dimensional environment can use optic flow to determine their direction of heading. Existing heading algorithms use cartesian flow fields in which image flow is the displacement of image features over time. I explore a heading algorithm that uses affine flow instead. The affine flow at an image feature is its displacement modulo an affine transformation defined by its neighborhood. Modeling the observer's instantaneous motion by a translation and a rotation about an axis through its eye, affine flow is tangent to the translational field lines on the observer's viewing sphere. These field lines form a radial flow field whose center is the direction of heading. The affine flow heading algorithm has characteristics that can be used to determine whether the human visual system relies on it. The algorithm is immune to observer rotation and arbitrary affine transformations of its input images; its accuracy improves with increasing variation in environmental depth; and it cannot recover heading in an environment consisting of a single plane because affine flow vanishes in this case. Translational field lines can also be approximated through differential cartesian motion. I compare the performance of heading algorithms based on affine flow, differential cartesian flow, and least-squares search.     

Über das optische Auflösungsvermögen der Facettenaugen von Limulus

Summary The resolving power of the human eye and the apposition eye in insects is discussed on the basis of Fraunhofer's diffraction theory. It is then shown that diffraction does not play an important role in the Limulus facet eye. In spite of this the visual fields of neighboured ommatidia overlap strongly as Waterman has shown. A mathematical relation which describes the process of imaging the optical surroundings onto the generator potentials of the excentric cells of the receptors is presented. This relation takes into account the overlap of the visual fields and the logarithmic relation between light intensity and generator potential (MacNichol, Fuortes). On the basis of Hartline and Ratliff's reports on lateral inhibition in the Limulus eye it is shown that this process corrects the overlap and therefore increases the resolving power of the eye. The functional mechanism of lateral inhibition is in principle able to create an image of the optical surroundings in the optic nerve. It therefore can compensate for the dioptric apparatus in front of the receptor mosaic. The correction process in the Limulus eye is studied quantitatively and other cases of principle interest are investigated by means of an analog computer. The results are discussed and other inhibitory processes in the visual and auditory system etc. are mentioned.     

The sophisticated visual system of a tiny Cambrian crustacean: analysis of a stalked fossil compound eye

Fossilized compound eyes from the Cambrian, isolated and three-dimensionally preserved, provide remarkable insights into the lifestyle and habitat of their owners. The tiny stalked compound eyes described here probably possessed too few facets to form a proper image, but they represent a sophisticated system for detecting moving objects. The eyes are preserved as almost solid, mace-shaped blocks of phosphate, in which the original positions of the rhabdoms in one specimen are retained as deep cavities. Analysis of the optical axes reveals four visual areas, each with different properties in acuity of vision. They are surveyed by lenses directed forwards, laterally, backwards and inwards, respectively. The most intriguing of these is the putatively inwardly orientated zone, where the optical axes, like those orientated to the front, interfere with axes of the other eye of the contralateral side. The result is a three-dimensional visual net that covers not only the front, but extends also far laterally to either side. Thus, a moving object could be perceived by a two-dimensional coordinate (which is formed by two axes of those facets, one of the left and one of the right eye, which are orientated towards the moving object) in a wide three-dimensional space. This compound eye system enables small arthropods equipped with an eye of low acuity to estimate velocity, size or distance of possible food items efficiently. The eyes are interpreted as having been derived from individuals of the early crustacean Henningsmoenicaris scutula pointing to the existence of highly efficiently developed eyes in the early evolutionary lineage leading towards the modern Crustacea.     

一种模拟昆虫视觉系统并行信息处理功能的光学实现

本文提出了一种新的模拟生物视觉神经系统并行信息处理功能的光学方法,它采用了昆虫复眼透镜阵列处理器和非相干光源实现图像矩阵正交变换,它为光神经计算提供了一种可能实现的新途径.     

Tonic effects of stationary luminous slits on the discharge rates of some locust visual interneurones

The presence of an illuminated slit in the visual field of a locust compound eye produced changes in the tonic discharge rate of the DCMD and three other visual interneurones, recorded in a connective. The DCMD discharge peaked initially in the range of low slit subtenses, but over a period of minutes of exposure its character changed so that there was a rise at high subtenses also. When the luminance of a slit of fixed subtense was increased in steps, there was an initial rise then a sharp fall in discharge, indicating an abrupt onset of inhibition. Lateral spread of inhibition could account for the peak in response to slits, at a subtense falling well within the acceptance angle of a single ommatidium. The results show the ability of some visual interneurones to maintain a changed level of discharge in the presence of a stationary object in the visual field of the eye.     

On the predominance of anti-compensatory eye movements in vestibular nystagmus

The predominance of anti-compensatory eye movements in vestibular nystagmus recorded during sinusoidal and post-rotational tests is interpreted in terms of a mathematical model of the vestibulo-ocular system. Namely, a direct pathway between the vestibular nuclei and the saccadic mechanism is assumed. In the range of frequencies of natural head movements this pathway carries on a signal proportional to head angular velocity. Therefore, during active head movements the saccadic mechanism is forced to produce quick eye rotations in the direction of head movement and, thus, to cooperate in the task of picking up visual targets outside the visual field. During passive head movements giving rise to nystagmus the assumed pathway contributes to reduce the error in eye resetting due to the saccadic delay. Analytical considerations and simulation results seem to prove the adequacy of the proposed model.Work supported by the National Research Council (C.N.R.), Rome, Italy