Dynamic fixation and active perception

Fixation is the link between the physical environment and the visual observer, both of which can be dynamic. That is, dynamic fixation serves the task of preserving a reference point in the world, despite relative motion. In this respect, fixation is dynamical in two senses: in response to voluntary changes of fixation point or attentive cues-gaze shiftings, and in response to the desire to compensate for the retinal slip-gaze holding. The work presented here, addresses the vergence movement and preservation of binocular fixation during smooth pursuit. This movement is a crucial component of fixation. The two vergence processes, disparity vergence and accommodative vergence, are described; a novel algorithm for robust disparity vergence and an active approach for blur detection and depth from defocus are presented. The main characteristics of the disparity vergence technique are the simplicity of the algorithm, the influence of both left and right images in the course of fixation and the agreement with the fixation model of primates. The major characteristic of the suggested algorithm for blur detection is its active approach which makes it suitable for achieving qualitative and reasonable depth estimations without unrealistic assumptions about the structures in the images. The paper also covers the integration of the two processes disparity vergence and accommodation vergence which are in turn accomplished by an integration of the disparity and blur stimuli. This integration is accounted for in both static and dynamic experiments.