RESOLUTION CONSIDERATION IN SPATIALLY VARIANT SENSORS

Log polar transformations for space variant systems have been proposed and used in active vision research. The idea is to generate an image with a varying resolution over a wide angle field of view. The fovea i s of high resolution and the periphery is of exponentially reduced res olution. The justifications for such a sensor are: (i) it provides hig h resolution and a wide viewing angle; (ii) feature invariance in the fovea simplifies foveation; (iii) it allows multi-resolution analysis; and (iv) it is cheaper and more efficient to build a variable resolut ion sensor over a particular field of view rather than a uniform high resolution sensor. The receptor density of the human retina is very hi gh, i.e. of the order of 10(8) receptors at the fovea. The question is , what resolution should space variant active vision systems have? Rea l visual sensors have been implemented but is the resolution produced high enough? This paper investigates the resolution requirements of a space variant sensor by simulation for a tracking system using raytrac ing. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.