Charles M Higgins

PMID: 15597180;Abstract:

Flies have the capability to visually track small moving targets, even across cluttered backgrounds. Previous computational models, based on figure detection (FD) cells identified in the fly, have suggested how this may be accomplished at a neuronal level based on information about relative motion between the target and the background. We experimented with the use of this "small-field system model" for the tracking of small moving targets by a simulated fly in a cluttered environment and discovered some functional limitations. As a result of these experiments, we propose elaborations of the original small-field system model to support stronger effects of background motion on small-field responses, proper accounting for more complex optical flow fields, and more direct guidance toward the target. We show that the elaborated model achieves much better tracking performance than the original model in complex visual environments and discuss the biological implications of our elaborations. The elaborated model may help to explain recent electrophysiological data on FD cells that seem to contradict the original model.

Abstract:

We introduce a biologically inspired computational architecture for small-field detection and wide-field spatial integration of visual motion based on the general organizing principles of visual motion processing common to organisms from insects to primates. This highly parallel architecture begins with two-dimensional (2-D) image transduction and signal conditioning, performs small-field motion detection with a number of parallel motion arrays, and then spatially integrates the small-field motion units to synthesize units sensitive to complex wide-field patterns of visual motion. We present a theoretical analysis demonstrating the architecture's potential in discrimination of wide-field motion patterns such as those which might be generated by self-motion. A custom VLSI hardware implementation of this architecture is also described, incorporating both analog and digital circuitry. The individual custom VLSI elements are analyzed and characterized, and system-level test results demonstrate the ability of the system to selectively respond to certain motion patterns, such as those that might be encountered in self-motion, at the exclusion of others. © 2002 IEEE.

PMID: 21161268;Abstract:

Insect navigational behaviors including obstacle avoidance, grazing landings, and visual odometry are dependent on the ability to estimate flight speed based only on visual cues. In honeybees, this visual estimate of speed is largely independent of both the direction of motion and the spatial frequency content of the image. Electrophysiological recordings from the motion-sensitive cells believed to underlie these behaviors have long supported spatio-temporally tuned correlation-type models of visual motion detection whose speed tuning changes as the spatial frequency of a stimulus is varied. The result is an apparent conflict between behavioral experiments and the electrophysiological and modeling data. In this article, we demonstrate that conventional correlation-type models are sufficient to reproduce some of the speed-dependent behaviors observed in honeybees when square wave gratings are used, contrary to the theoretical predictions. However, these models fail to match the behavioral observations for sinusoidal stimuli. Instead, we show that non-directional motion detectors, which underlie the correlation-based computation of directional motion, can be used to mimic these same behaviors even when narrowband gratings are used. The existence of such non-directional motion detectors is supported both anatomically and electrophysiologically, and they have been hypothesized to be critical in the Dipteran elementary motion detector (EMD) circuit. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

Abstract:

The computation of local visual motion can be accomplished very efficiently in the focal plane with custom very large-scale integration (VLSI) hardware. Algorithms based on measurement of the spatial and temporal frequency content of the visual motion signal, since they incorporate no thresholding operation, allow highly sensitive responses to low contrast and low-speed visual motion stimuli. We describe analog VLSI implementations of the three most prominent spatio-temporal frequency-based visual motion algorithms, present characterizations of their performance, and compare the advantages of each on an equal basis. This comparison highlights important issues in the design of analog VLSI sensors, including the effects of circuit design on power consumption, the tradeoffs of subthreshold versus above-threshold MOSFET biasing, and methods of layout for focal plane vision processing arrays. The presented sensors are capable of distinguishing the direction of motion of visual stimuli to less than 5% contrast, while consuming as little as 1 μW of electrical power. These visual motion sensors are useful in embedded applications where minimum power consumption, size, and weight are crucial. © 2005 IEEE.

Abstract:

We present a novel analog VLSI implementation of visual motion computation based on the lateral inhibition and positive feedback mechanisms that are inherent in the hysteretic winner-take-all circuit. By use of an input-dependent bias current and threshold mechanism, the circuit resets itself to prepare for another motion computation. This implementation was inspired by the Barlow-Levick model of direction selectivity in the rabbit retina. Each pixel uses 33 transistors and two small capacitors to detect the direction of motion and can be altered with the addition of six more transistors to measure the interpixel transit time. Simulation results and measurements from fabricated VLSI designs are presented to show the operation of the circuits. © 2006 IEEE.