Many current neurophysiological, psychophysical, and psychological approaches to vision rest on the idea that when we see, the brain produces an internal representation of the world. The activation of this internal representation is assumed to give rise to the experience of seeing. The problem with this kind of approach is that it leaves unexplained how the existence of such a detailed internal representation might produce visual consciousness. An alternative proposal is made here. We propose that seeing is a way of acting. It is a particular way of exploring the environment. Activity in internal representations does not generate the experience of seeing. The outside world serves as its own, external, representation. The experience of seeing occurs when the organism masters what we call the governing laws of sensorimotor contingency. The advantage of this approach is that it provides a natural and principled way of accounting for visual consciousness, and for the differences in the perceived quality of sensory experience in the different sensory modalities. Several lines of empirical evidence are brought forward in support of the theory, in particular: evidence from experiments in sensorimotor adaptation, visual \"filling in,\" visual stability despite eye movements, change blindness, sensory substitution, and color perception.

A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness-Authors' Response-Acting out our sensory experience

A forward-facing vision system for a vehicle includes a forward-facing camera disposed in a windshield electronics module attached at a windshield of the vehicle and viewing through the windshield. A control includes a processor that, responsive to processing of captured image data, detects taillights of leading vehicles during nighttime conditions and, responsive to processing of captured image data, detects lane markers on a road being traveled by the vehicle. The control, responsive to lane marker detection and a determination that the vehicle is drifting out of a traffic lane, may control a steering system of the vehicle to mitigate such drifting, with the steering system manually controllable by a driver of the vehicle irrespective of control by the control. The processor, based at least in part on detection of lane markers via processing of captured image data, determines curvature of the road being traveled by the vehicle.

Vision system for vehicle

A vehicular vision system includes a camera having a lens and a CMOS photosensor array having a plurality of photosensor elements. The camera is disposed at an interior portion of a vehicle equipped with the vehicular vision system. The camera one of (i) views exterior of the equipped vehicle through the windshield of the equipped vehicle and forward of the equipped vehicle and (ii) views from the windshield of the equipped vehicle into the interior cabin of the equipped vehicle. A control includes an image processor that processes image data captured by the photosensor array. The image processor processes captured image data to detect an object viewed by the camera. The photosensor array is operable at a plurality of exposure periods and at least one exposure period of the plurality of exposure periods is dynamically variable.

Vehicular vision system

A conversational, natural language voice user interface may provide an integrated voice navigation services environment. The voice user interface may enable a user to make natural language requests relating to various navigation services, and further, may interact with the user in a cooperative, conversational dialogue to resolve the requests. Through dynamic awareness of context, available sources of information, domain knowledge, user behavior and preferences, and external systems and devices, among other things, the voice user interface may provide an integrated environment in which the user can speak conversationally, using natural language, to issue queries, commands, or other requests relating to the navigation services provided in the environment.

System and method for providing a natural language voice user interface in an integrated voice navigation services environment

A cooperative conversational voice user interface is provided. The cooperative conversational voice user interface may build upon short-term and long-term shared knowledge to generate one or more explicit and/or implicit hypotheses about an intent of a user utterance. The hypotheses may be ranked based on varying degrees of certainty, and an adaptive response may be generated for the user. Responses may be worded based on the degrees of certainty and to frame an appropriate domain for a subsequent utterance. In one implementation, misrecognitions may be tolerated, and conversational course may be corrected based on subsequent utterances and/or responses.

System and method for a cooperative conversational voice user interface

A method for controlling a vehicle which includes obtaining, via at least one detecting device, behavior information of a driver in the vehicle, and transitioning control statuses of the vehicle according to the driver behavior information.

Method and system for controlling a vehicle

A method and system is provided for a semi-autonomous vehicle to have optional routes that vary in an amount of autonomous driving offered. The system performs processes including aggregating data from various sources to thereby position and orient the vehicle, assigning a autonomous driving value to different route segments, determining an optimal route by minimizing a distance between a start position and a destination position and maximizing the percent autonomous value assigned, and displaying the optimal route.

Automatic driving route planning application

A control system, components and methodologies enable control of vehicle and in-vehicle system functionality via gesture recognition. In illustrative embodiments, the control system, constituent components and methodologies determine what functionality a user wishes to control by tracking the user's gaze to identify a selected function or function set. In combination with identifying the selected function and function set, one or more sensors installed in the vehicle detect one or more user gestures initiated by a user to interact with and/or control the selected function/function set.

System, components and methodologies for gaze dependent gesture input control

A steering wheel is configured as a dual-state input device configured to operate in two distinct states based on a current driving mode. In a manual driving mode, the input device is configured to control a limited set of vehicle functions and in an autonomous mode the input device is configured to control an expanded set of vehicle functions. The steering wheel includes a wheel rim movably mounted on a steering column and a hub disposed within a center of the wheel rim on the steering column, the main body portion comprising an interactive touch screen disposed on the main body portion. The wheel rim is configured to disengage from the hub and move along the steering column to a retracted position.

Dual-state steering wheel/input device

Two experiments examined perceived spatial orientation in a small environment as a function of experiencing that environment under three conditions: real-world, desktop-display (DD), and head-mounted display (HMD). Across the three conditions, participants acquired two targets located on a perimeter surrounding them, and attempted to remember the relative locations of the targets. Subsequently, participants were tested on how accurately and consistently they could point in the remembered direction of a previously seen target. Results showed that participants were significantly more consistent in the real-world and HMD conditions than in the DD condition. Further, it is shown that the advantages observed in the HMD and real-world conditions were not simply due to nonspatial response strategies. These results suggest that the additional idiothetic information afforded in the real-world and HMD conditions is useful for orientation purposes in our presented task domain. Our results are relevant to interface design issues concerning tasks that require spatial search, navigation, and visualization.

William Brian Lathrop

Papers

Method and system for controlling a vehicle

Automatic driving route planning application

System, components and methodologies for gaze dependent gesture input control

Dual-state steering wheel/input device

Perceived orientation in physical and virtual environments: changes in perceived orientation as a function of idiothetic information available