Intelligent Gaze Control

There is much current interest in robotic vision systems that incorporate multiple cooperating controllable sensors mounted on maneuverable platforms. Part of intelligent gaze control is the efficient allocation of visual (sensing) and attentional (computing) resources while carrying out sensory-motor tasks. Gaze control can also be taken to mean the control system that manages the physical sensors at the lowest level, and it is in that sense it is used here. The claim is that gaze control can facilitate perception by “intelligently” providing basic functionalities. Basic functionalities for managing the extrinsic properties of the sensors are: fast guze shift. a n d gaze holding (which includes stabilizing gaze under egomotion and holding fixation on a moving target). The main functionalities managing intrinsic properties are focus and “auto-ins” level control in cameras a focal-length adjusting “zoom” function is also useful. The concern here is with gaze holding, the facility of tracking a possibly moving object with the eyes from a possibly moving platform. Gaze holding has several aspects that are accomplished in animals by a set of specialized controls that are mentioned here and sometimes referred to by analogy later. The srnooth pursuit system tracks continuous target motion. The vestibu/o-ocular rejlex (VOR) and otolith-ocular reflex systems rotate the