Light processing improves robotic sensing, study finds – IAM Network

A team of Army researchers uncovered how the human brain processes bright and contrasting light, which they say is a key to improving robotic sensing and enabling autonomous agents to team with humans. To enable developments in autonomy, a top Army priority, machine sensing must be resilient across changing environments, researchers said. "When we develop machine vision algorithms, real-world images are usually compressed to a narrower range, as a cellphone camera does, in a process called tone mapping," said Andre Harrison, a researcher at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory. "This can contribute to the brittleness of machine vision algorithms because they are based on artificial images that don't quite match the patterns we see in the real world." By developing a new system with 100,000-to-1 display capability, the team discovered the brain's computations, under more real-world conditions, so they could build biological resilience into sensors, Harrison said.