Vision for the Future

Approximately half the cortical matter in the human brain is involved in processing visual information, more than for all of the other senses combined. This reflects the importance of vision for function and survival but also explains its role in entertaining us, training us and informing our decision-making processes. However, we still understand relatively little about visual processes in naturalistic environments and this is why it is such an important research area across such a broad range of applications.

Vision is important: YouTube video accounts for 25% of all internet traffic and in the US, Netflix accounts for 33% of peak traffic; by 2016 video is predicted by CISCO to account for 54% of all traffic (86% if P2P video distribution is included) where the total IP traffic is predicted to be 1.3 zettabytes. Mobile network operators predict a 1000 fold increase in demand over the next 10 years driven primarily by video traffic. At the other extreme, the mammalian eye is used by cheetahs to implement stable locomotion over natural terrain at over 80km/h and by humans to thread a needle with sub-millimetre accuracy or to recognise subtle changes in facial expression. The mantis shrimp uses 12 colour channels (humans use only three) together with polarisation and it possesses the fastest and most accurate strike in the animal kingdom.

Vision is thus central to the way animals interact with the world. A deeper understanding of the fundamental aspects of perception and visual processing in humans and animals, across the domains of immersion, movement and visual search, coupled with innovation in engineering solutions, is therefore essential in delivering future technology related to consumer, internet, robotic and environmental monitoring applications.

This project will conduct research across three interdisciplinary strands: Visual Immersion, Finding and Hiding Things, and Vision in Motion. These are key to understanding how humans interact with the visual world. By drawing on knowledge and closely coupled research across computer science, electronic engineering, psychology and biology we will deliver radically new approaches to, and solutions in, the design of vision based technology.

We recognise that it is critical to balance high risk research with the coherence of the underlying programme. We will thus instigate a new sandpit approach to ideas generation where researchers can develop their own mini-projects. This will be aligned with a risk management process using peer review to ensure that the full potential of the grant is realised. The management team will periodically and when needed, seek independent advice through a BVI Advisory panel.

Our PDRAs will benefit in ways beyond those on conventional grants. They will for example be mentored to:
i) engage in ideas generation workshops, defining and delivering their own mini-projects within the programme;
ii) develop these into full proposals (grants or fellowships) if appropriate;
iii) undertake secondments to international collaborator organisations, enabling them to gain experience of different research cultures;
iv) lead the organisation of key events such as the BVI Young Researchers' Colloquium; v) be trained as STEM ambassadors to engage in outreach activities and public engagement; and
vii) explore exploitation of their intellectual property.
Finally we will closely link BVI's doctoral training activities to this grant, providing greater research leverage and experience of research supervision for our staff.

Vision is central to the way humans interact with the world. A deeper understanding of the fundamental aspects of human perception and visual processing in humans and animals, will lead to innovation in engineering solutions. Our programme will therefore be instrumental in delivering future technology related to consumer, internet, robotic and environmental monitoring applications.

Through a closely coupled research programme across engineering, computer science, psychology and biology, this grant will deliver in each of these areas. Firstly, this research will be relevant to research communities across disciplines: it will benefit psychologists in generating realistic real world scenarios and data sets and results which help us to understand the way humans interact with the visual world; It will benefit biologists in providing visual models for understanding the evolution and ecology of vision; it will benefit engineers and computer scientists in providing radically new approaches to solving technology problems.

The research in Visual Immersion will be of great significance to the ICT community commercially in terms of future video acquisition formats, new compression methods, new quality assessment methods and immersive measurements. This will inform the future of immersive consumer products - 'beyond 3D'. In particular the project will deliver an understanding of the complex interactions between video parameters in delivering a more immersive visual experience. This will not only be relevant to entertainment, but also in visual analytics, surveillance and healthcare. Our results are likely to inform future international activity in video format standardisation in film, broadcast and internet delivery, moving thinking from 'end to end solutions' to the 'creative continuum' where content creation, production delivery, display, consumption and quality assessment, are all intimately interrelated. Our work will also help us to understand how humans interact with complex environments, or are distracted by environmental changes - leading to better design of interfaces for task based operations and hence improved situational awareness.

In terms of Finding and Hiding Things - impact will be created in areas such as visual camouflage patterns, offering a principled design framework which takes account of environmental factors and mission characteristics. It will also provide enhanced means of detecting difficult targets, through better understanding of the interactions between task and environment. It will provide benefits in application areas such as situational awareness and stealthy operation - highly relevant to surveillance applications. The work will also contribute in related areas such as environmental visual impact of entities such as windfarms, buildings or pylons. Hence the relevance of the research to energy providers and civil engineers. Finally, visual interaction with complex scenes is a key enabler for the 'internet of things'.

In the case of Vision in Motion, the research will deliver impact in the design of truly autonomous machines, exploiting our understanding of the way in which animals and humans adapt to the environment. The beneficiaries in this case will be organisations in the commercial, domestic and surveillance robotics or UAV sectors. Furthermore, understanding the interactions between motion and camouflage has widespread relevance to environmental applications and to anomaly detection. Through a better understanding of the effects of motion we can design improved visual acquisition methods, better consumer interfaces, displays and content formats. This will be of broad benefit across the ICT sector, with particular relevance to designers of visual interfaces and to content providers in the entertainment sector. Furthermore the research will benefit those working in healthcare - for example in rehabilitation or in the design of point of care systems incorporating exocentric vision systems