Authors:
Alexandra Branzan Albu
1
and
George Nagy
2
Affiliations:
1
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
;
2
Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, U.S.A.
Keyword(s):
Physical Scenes, Symbols, Perception, Cognition.
Abstract:
Understanding visual symbols is a strictly human skill, as opposed to comprehending natural scenes—which is an essential survival skill, common to many species. As an illustration of the natural vs. symbolic dichotomy, selective features are computed for differentiating a satellite photograph from a map of the same geographical region. Images of physical scenes /objects are currently captured in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Symbols, whether produced by man or machine, are almost always imaged in the visible range. Although natural and symbolic images differ in many ways, there is no universal set of differentiating characteristics. With respect to the traditional branches of pattern recognition, it is tempting to suggest that statistical, neural network and genetic/evolutionary pattern recognition methods are eminently suitable for images of scenes and simple symbols, whereas structural and syntactic approaches are best for more complex, composite graphical symbols.