1. Image Motion Processing in Visual Function

Retinal motion comes about whenever we move or look at moving objects. Small involuntary retinal movements take place even when we fixate on a stationary target. Processing of this ever-present image motion plays several fundamental functional roles in human vision. In machine vision as well, image motion processing by computer vision algorithms has in many useful applications several essential functions reminiscent of the processing by the human visual system. As the following discussion sets to point out, computer vision modelling of motion has addressed problems similar to some that have arisen in human vision research, including those concerning the earliest fundamental questions and explanations put forth by Helmholtz and by Gibson about human motion perception. However, computer vision motion models have evolved independently of human perception concerns and specificities, much like the camera has evolved independently of the understanding of the human eye biology and function [1]