OWL: A Novel Approach to Machine Perception During Motion

Abstract: We introduce a perception-related function, OWL, designed to address the complex challenges of 3D perception during motion. It derives its values directly from two fundamental visual motion cues, with one set of cue values per point per time instant. During motion, two visual motion cues relative to a fixation point emerge: 1) perceived local visual looming of points near the fixation point, and 2) perceived rotation of the rigid object relative to the fixation point. It also expresses the relation between two well-known physical quantities, the relative instantaneous directional range and directional translation in 3D between the camera and any visible 3D point, without explicitly requiring their measurement or prior knowledge of their individual values. OWL offers a unified, analytical time-based approach that enhances and simplifies key perception capabilities, including scaled 3D mapping and camera heading. Simulations demonstrate that OWL achieves geometric constancy of 3D objects over time and enables scaled 3D scene reconstruction from visual motion cues alone. By leveraging direct measurements from raw visual motion image sequences, OWL values can be obtained without prior knowledge of stationary environments, moving objects, or camera motion. This approach employs minimalistic, pixel-based, parallel computations, providing an alternative real-time representation for 3D points in relative motion. OWL bridges the gap between theoretical concepts and practical applications in robotics and autonomous navigation and may unlock new possibilities for real-time decision-making and interaction, potentially serving as a building block for next-generation autonomous systems. This paper offers an alternative perspective on machine perception, with implications that may extend to natural perception and contribute to a better understanding of behavioral psychology and neural functionality.