Pulse coupled neural network (PCNN) models are described. The linking field modulation term is shown to be a universal feature of any biologically grounded dendritic model. Applications and implementations of PCNNs are reviewed. Application based variations and simplifications are summarized. The PCNN image decomposition (factoring) model is described in detail.

PCNN models and applications

This paper describes a method for segmenting digital images using pulse coupled neural networks (PCNN). The pulse coupled neuron (PCN) model used in PCNN is a modification of the cortical neuron model of Eckhorn et al. (1990). A single layered laterally connected PCNN is capable of perfectly segmenting digital images even when there is a considerable overlap in the intensity ranges of adjacent regions. Conditions for perfect image segmentation are derived. It is also shown that addition of an inhibition receptive field to the neuron model increases the possibility of perfect segmentation. The inhibition input reduces the overlap of intensity ranges of adjacent regions by effectively compressing the intensity range of each region.

Perfect image segmentation using pulse coupled neural networks

The linking-field neural network model of Eckhorn et al. [Neural Comput. 2, 293-307 (1990)] was introduced to explain the experimentally observed synchronous activity among neural assemblies in the cat cortex induced by feature-dependent visual activity. The model produces synchronous bursts of pulses from neurons with similar activity, effectively grouping them by phase and pulse frequency. It gives a basic new function: grouping by similarity. The synchronous bursts are obtained in the limit of strong linking strengths. The linking-field model in the limit of moderate-to-weak linking characterized by few if any multiple bursts is investigated. In this limit dynamic, locally periodic traveling waves exist whose time signal encodes the geometrical structure of a two-dimensional input image. The signal can be made insensitive to translation, scale, rotation, distortion, and intensity. The waves transmit information beyond the physical interconnect distance. The model is implemented in an optical hybrid demonstration system. Results of the simulations and the optical system are presented.

Pulse-coupled neural nets: translation, rotation, scale, distortion, and intensity signal invariance for images

Review article: Review of pulse-coupled neural networks

Multi-focus image fusion using PCNN

A pulse-coupled neural network was implemented, for the first time to our knowledge, in a hybrid electro-optical laboratory demonstration system. Dynamic coherent traveling-wave patterns were observed that repeated their spatial patterns at each locality with a period that depended on the local input pattern and strength. Coherence and periodicity were maintained far beyond the physical limits of the linking receptive fields, suggesting a new mechanism for information transmission in a network with limited local connectivity. With no linking, the output became chaotic because the relative phases increased linearly in time.

Dieter Ritter

Papers

Observation of periodic waves in a pulse-coupled neural network.