Foveated imaging is a digital image processing technique in which the image resolution, or amount of detail, varies across the image according to one or more "fixation points". A fixation point indicates the highest resolution region of the image and corresponds to the center of the eye's retina, the fovea.
The location of a fixation point may be specified in many ways. For example, when viewing an image on a computer monitor, one may specify a fixation using a pointing device, like a computer mouse. Eye trackers which precisely measure the eye's position and movement are also commonly used to determine fixation points in perception experiments.[1][2] When the display is manipulated with the use of an eye tracker, this is known as a gaze contingent display.[3] Fixations may also be determined automatically using computer algorithms.[4][5]
Some common applications of foveated imaging include imaging sensor hardware[6] and image compression.[7] For descriptions of these and other applications, see the list below. Miniaturized foveated imaging systems can be realized by high-resolution 3D printing of multi-lens objectives directly on a CMOS (Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) chip.[8]
Foveated imaging is also commonly referred to as space variant imaging or gaze contingent imaging.
- ^ McConkie G W and Rayner K (1975) The span of the effective stimulus during a fixation in reading, Perception & Psychophysics, 17, 578–86
- ^ Loschky, L.C. & Wolverton, G.S. (2007). How Late Can You Update Gaze-contingent Multi-resolutional Displays Without Detection? ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications, 3(4):25, 1-10.
- ^ Duchowski, A. T., Cournia, N., and Murphy, H. 2004. Gaze-Contingent displays: A review. Cyberpsychol. Behav. 7, 6, 621--634.
- ^ Z. Wang, L. Lu and A. C. Bovik, "Foveation scalable video coding with automatic fixation selection," IEEE Trans. on Image Processing, Vol: 12 No: 2, February 2003.
- ^ R. G. Raj, W. S. Geisler, R. A. Frazor, A. C. Bovik, "Contrast statistics for foveated visual systems: Fixation selection by minimizing contrast entropy" Journal of the Optical Society of America.
- ^ J.A. Boluda, F. Pardo, T. Kayser, J.J. P'erez, and J. Pelechano. A new foveated space-variant camera for robotic applications. In IEEE, International Conference on Electronics Circuits And Systems, ICECS'96, Rodos, Greece, October 1996.
- ^ Geisler, W.S. and Perry, J.S. (1998) A real-time foveated multi-resolution system for low-bandwidth video communication. In B. Rogowitz and T. Pappas (Eds.), Human Vision and Electronic Imaging, SPIE Proceedings, 3299, 294-305.
- ^ Thiele, Simon; Arzenbacher, Kathrin; Gissibl, Timo; Giessen, Harald; Herkommer, Alois M. (2017-02-03). "3D-printed eagle eye: Compound microlens system for foveated imaging". Science Advances. 3 (2): e1602655. Bibcode:2017SciA....3E2655T. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1602655. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 5310822. PMID 28246646.