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International Conference on Current Trends in Theory and Practice of Computer Science

SOFSEM 2000: SOFSEM 2000: Theory and Practice of Informatics pp 202–226Cite as

Cheap Vision—Exploiting Ecological Niche and Morphology

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1963))

Abstract

In the course of evolutionary history, the visual system has evolved as part of a complete autonomous agent in the service of motor control. Therefore, the synthetic methodology investigates visual skills in the context of tasks a complete agent has to perform in a particular environment using autonomous mobile robots as modeling tools. We present a number of case studies in which certain vision-based behaviors in insects have been modeled with real robots, the snapshot model for landmark navigation, the average landmark vector model (ALV), a model of visual odometry, and the evolution of the morphology of an insect eye. From these case studies we devise a number of principles that characterize the concept of “cheap vision”. It is concluded that—if ecological niche and morphology are properly taken into account—in many cases vision becomes much simpler.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Department of Information Technology, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057, Zurich, Switzerland

    Rolf Pfeifer & Dimitrios Lambrinos

Authors
  1. Rolf Pfeifer
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  2. Dimitrios Lambrinos
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cybernetics, Czech Technical University, Karlovo nám. 13, 121 35, Prague, Czech Republic

    Václav Hlaváč

  2. Information Technology Department, CLRC RAL, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire, UK

    Keith G. Jeffery

  3. Insitute of Computer Science, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Pod vodárenskou věží 2, 182 07, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jiří Wiedermann

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Pfeifer, R., Lambrinos, D. (2000). Cheap Vision—Exploiting Ecological Niche and Morphology. In: Hlaváč, V., Jeffery, K.G., Wiedermann, J. (eds) SOFSEM 2000: Theory and Practice of Informatics. SOFSEM 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1963. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44411-4_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44411-4_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-41348-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44411-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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