Empirical Inference

The Independent Components of Natural Images are Perceptually Dependent

2007

Conference Paper

ei


The independent components of natural images are a set of linear filters which are optimized for statistical independence. With such a set of filters images can be represented without loss of information. Intriguingly, the filter shapes are localized, oriented, and bandpass, resembling important properties of V1 simple cell receptive fields. Here we address the question of whether the independent components of natural images are also perceptually less dependent than other image components. We compared the pixel basis, the ICA basis and the discrete cosine basis by asking subjects to interactively predict missing pixels (for the pixel basis) or to predict the coefficients of ICA and DCT basis functions in patches of natural images. Like Kersten (1987) we find the pixel basis to be perceptually highly redundant but perhaps surprisingly, the ICA basis showed significantly higher perceptual dependencies than the DCT basis. This shows a dissociation between statistical and perceptual dependence measures.

Author(s): Bethge, M. and Wiecki, TV. and Wichmann, FA.
Book Title: Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XII
Journal: Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XII: Proceedings of the SPIE Human Vision and Electronic Imaging Conference 2007
Pages: 1-12
Year: 2007
Month: February
Day: 0
Editors: Rogowitz, B. E.
Publisher: SPIE

Department(s): Empirical Inference
Bibtex Type: Conference Paper (inproceedings)

DOI: 10.1117/12.711133
Event Name: SPIE Human Vision and Electronic Imaging Conference 2007
Event Place: San Jose, CA, USA

Address: Bellingham, WA, USA
Digital: 0
Language: en
Organization: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
School: Biologische Kybernetik

Links: PDF
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BibTex

@inproceedings{4304,
  title = {The Independent Components of Natural Images are Perceptually Dependent},
  author = {Bethge, M. and Wiecki, TV. and Wichmann, FA.},
  journal = {Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XII: Proceedings of the SPIE Human Vision and Electronic Imaging Conference 2007},
  booktitle = {Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XII},
  pages = {1-12},
  editors = {Rogowitz, B. E.},
  publisher = {SPIE},
  organization = {Max-Planck-Gesellschaft},
  school = {Biologische Kybernetik},
  address = {Bellingham, WA, USA},
  month = feb,
  year = {2007},
  doi = {10.1117/12.711133},
  month_numeric = {2}
}