QUERY BASED VISUAL ANALYSIS - SPATIO-TEMPORAL REASONING IN COMPUTER VISION

Two experimental systems for query-based visual analysis are described. The first simulates an image sequence of moving, dividing cells with simple rules and monitors significant visual events. The second processes single raw images of real cells. Both invoke appropriate processing using explicit knowledge to respond to user queries. It is proposed that this selectivity is an essential feature for any system to analyse raw image sequences of moving, dividing cells as the computational expense of allowing all possible processing to proceed is enormous. Processing as required by the query allows adaptive strategies (e.g. different resolutions and focal processing) to be utilized and gives an effective attentional control structure to the system.