Object-based attention: saliency detection using contrast via background prototypes

An object-based attention model to predict visual saliency using contrast against the 'background prototypes' is presented. The proposed model automatically identifies a series of regions far away from the image centre as background prototypes. The visual saliency is then calculated using the colour contrast against these background prototypes. Promising experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in terms of detection accuracy and implementation efficiency.