Introduction

THE FIELD of computer vision covers a wide range of topics that are often only loosely related to the capabilities and function of human vision. Computer vision systems may use exotic sensors such as laser rangefinders or make restrictive assumptions regarding the scene that have no counterpart in human vision. However, the following pages will deal mostly with the interpretation of single black-and-white images—in particular with edge descriptions extracted from them—and will not generally make use of restrictive assumptions regarding the scene. This portion of the computer vision problem seems to be one of the most central to the functioning of the human visual system, and much of the following study will be motivated by what is known of human vision.