Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Parsing silhouettes: the short-cut rule.

M Singh1, G D Seyranian, D D Hoffman

  • 1University of California, Irvine, USA. manish@psyche.mit.edu

Perception & Psychophysics
|June 17, 1999
PubMed
Summary

Human vision parses shapes into parts using a new "short-cut rule," preferring the shortest cuts for silhouette parsing. This principle aids shape recognition and modal completion.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Yield and Seed Quality of Soybean Cultivars Infected with Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.

Plant disease·2019
Same author

Selected Soybean Plant Introductions with Partial Resistance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.

Plant disease·2019
Same author

Constructing and representing visual objects.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2011
Same author

The use of significant others to enhance the detection of malingerers from traumatically brain-injured patients.

Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists·2003
Same author

Flank transparency: transparent filters seen in dynamic two-color displays.

Perception·2002
Same author

The data problem for color objectivism.

Consciousness and cognition·2001

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Computational Vision
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • Human vision decomposes complex shapes into simpler parts for recognition.
  • Existing methods like the minima rule identify parsing points but not the cutting strategy.
  • The precise mechanism for part-based shape parsing remains an open question in visual science.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose and validate the "short-cut rule" as a principle governing how human vision parses object silhouettes.
  • To demonstrate that the short-cut rule complements existing parsing heuristics like the minima rule.
  • To explore the underlying principles, such as transversality, that may motivate these visual parsing strategies.

Main Methods:

  • Development of the "short-cut rule" based on the principle of transversality.
  • Design and execution of five psychophysical experiments to test the short-cut rule's predictions.
  • Comparison of experimental results with predictions from the short-cut rule and the minima rule.

Main Results:

  • The short-cut rule successfully predicts how human vision makes part cuts between boundary points identified by the minima rule.
  • Experimental data supports the hypothesis that shorter cuts are preferred in silhouette parsing.
  • The short-cut rule demonstrated the ability to generate novel boundary points, refining the parsing process.

Conclusions:

  • The short-cut rule provides a parsimonious explanation for part-based shape parsing in human vision.
  • This rule, motivated by transversality, enhances our understanding of both silhouette parsing and modal completion.
  • The findings offer a new computational model for predicting visual object segmentation and part decomposition.

Related Experiment Videos