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Insect Brains Use Image Interpolation Mechanisms to Recognise Rotated Objects

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Quoc Vuong

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Abstract

Recognising complex three-dimensional objects presents significant challenges to visual systems when these objects are rotated in depth. The image processing requirements for reliable individual recognition under these circumstances are computationally intensive since local features and their spatial relationships may significantly change as an object is rotated in the horizontal plane. Visual experience is known to be important in primate brains learning to recognise rotated objects, but currently it is unknown how animals with comparatively simple brains deal with the problem of reliably recognising objects when seen from different viewpoints. We show that the miniature brain of honeybees initially demonstrate a low tolerance for novel views of complex shapes (e. g. human faces), but can learn to recognise novel views of stimuli by interpolating between or 'averaging' views they have experienced. The finding that visual experience is also important for bees has important implications for understanding how three dimensional biologically relevant objects like flowers are recognised in complex environments, and for how machine vision might be taught to solve related visual problems.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Dyer AG, Vuong QC

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: PLoS One

Year: 2008

Volume: 3

Issue: 12

ISSN (electronic): 1932-6203

Publisher: Public Library Science

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004086

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004086

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