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C00002 00002		It  is convenient  to  divide work  in  computer vision  into
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	It  is convenient  to  divide work  in  computer vision  into
scientific  work and work  in basic  technology.  Scientific  work is
aimed at getting certain  knowledge, and basic technological work  is
aimed at  getting certain  kinds of  capability independently  of how
this capability  may be applied.  In the field of computer vision, as
in artificial intelligence generally, these efforts  are intertwined,
and  it is  often not clear  which goal  dominates in  the work  of a
particular group.


KNOWLEDGE

	In computer  vision, the  main scientific  questions are  the
following:

	1. What  kinds of information  about the world  are available
through vision?   Clearly only partial information  about a person is
available from vision when  you see him seated  behind a desk.   When
you see a machine at a distance even less information is available.

	2.   What  information about  the  world can  be assumed  and
combined  with  direct vision  information  to get  information about
three  dimensional  objects?    What  rules  determine  what  can  be
legitimately inferred or conjectured?

	3. What is  it reasonable to try to know  about an object and
how can this information be represented in the memory of a  computer?
Clearly this is different for a machine  part whose complete shape is
often determinable and  necessary and a tree or head of hair where it
is impossible  and  unnecessary to  determine  the location  of  each
individual hair  or leaf.   But  note that a  barber or  tree surgeon
while  not keeping  in mind  the location  of all hairs  or branches,
requires temporary information about particular hairs  or branches in
order to do the next step of his work.

	4. What  information about a  scene comes from  the different
visual characteristics?   What redundancy  is there?   By what  rules
can the different  cues be combined legitimately to  give information
about  a scene?  The  kinds of information that  have been considered
include brightness  and  brightness  edges, color  and  color  edges,
texture and regions  grown by combining small  regions of homogeneous
texture,    the  distance as  measured  by range  finders  or  by the
parallax of two views  together with parallax edges.   Recently there
as been  a lot of work  on so-called top-down approaches  where a lot
of information about what  objects may be presumed  to be is used  to
interpret lower level  information.  Thus  if an object  was presumed
to be a human, two and not more arms must be accounted for.


CAPABILITY

	The  main capabilities  computer  vision research  is working
towards are the following:

	1. The ability  to find objects such  as persons,   vehicles,
or  machine parts  in  a  complex environment  and  to determine  the
attitudes  of the objects found.   Thus we not only  need to find the
vehicles in  a scene  but we  also need to  know which  way they  are
going.   Machine parts must be located  oriented so that manipulators
can pick them up.

	2. The  ability to  give a  description of  a scene  that  is
complete with regard to those aspects relevant to a certain task.


APPLICATIONS

	Computer  vision has  many  potential applications  including
some of special  interest to the Department of Defense. Here are some
of them:

1. Remote  control.  Before  going into  detail, it  is necessary  to
mention one  major embarassment  for the computer  vision enthusiast.
Namely,  the situation is somewhat analogous  to early discussions of
the employment  of  computers for  business  and inventory  purposes.
Much  more  elementary   things  than  the  employment  of  computers
remained to be done.

	At an early conference on possible applications of  computers
in libraries, it was pointed out that  a very large improvement could
be  made without  computers  by adopting  a proposal  made  by Joseph
Henry in 1859 for a uniform national cataloging system.

	An analogous role  with regard to  computer vision is  played
by remote  operation using  television.  There  are still  very large
payoffs  for  ordinary  remote  operation  not  involving  computers.
However, just as  with business and with  libraries, there is also  a
great potential payoff  arising from the use of  computers, and it is
not necessary to wait for all potential remote control payoffs to  be
realized  before beginning  the  study and  even  the application  of
computer vision.

	a. Remotely operated aircraft.