ARCHITECTURE FOR COMPUTER VISION APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE HORUS SYSTEM

An integrated program development environment for computer vision task s is presented. The first component of the system is concerned with th e visualization of 2-D image data. This is done in an object-oriented manner. Programming of the visualization process is achieved by arrang ing the representations of iconic data in an interactively customizabl e hierarchy that establishes an intuitive flow of messages between dat a representations seen as objects. The visualization objects, called d isplays, are designed for different levels of abstraction, starring fr om direct iconic representation down to numerical features, depending on the information needed. Two types of messages are passed between th ese displays (update and result messages), which yield a clear and int uitive semantics. The second component of the system is an interactive tool for rapid program development. It helps the user in selecting ap propriate operators in many ways. For example, the system provides con text sensitive selection of possible alternative operators as well as suitable successors and required predecessors. For the task of choosin g appropriate parameters several alternatives exist. For example, the system provides default values as well as lists of useful values for a il parameters of each operator. To achieve this, a knowledge base cont aining facts about the operators and their parameters is used. Second, through the tight coupling of the two system components, parameters c an be determined quickly by data exploration within the visualization component (C) 1997 SPIE and IS&T. [S1017-9909(97)00402-9].