Predicting visual perceivability of scene objects through spatio-temporal modeling of retinal receptive fields

Abstract

Retinal processing of a visual scene is an essential step of human visual perception. Although foveal vision is linked to the visual attention, perception is by not means limited to this region. Rather, the retinal field of view ranges from 60° nasal to 107° temporal, and from 70° superior to 80° inferior. Whether a scene object is visually perceived depends on both its visual appearance as well as its retinal location. We present a framework to evaluate the visual stimulus of a scene object with regard to different types of retinal receptive fields. Driven by gaze location provided by an eye tracker, the estimated retinal response considers the visual appearance of the object, its eccentricity in the users field of view, and the capabilities at the local retinal region. A desktop experiment shows that, in additional to foveal processing, the estimated retinal response leads to a significant increase in classification accuracy in terms of whether an object is reported as perceived by the user.