MIT Researchers develop new image-recognition software

One part of the human brain that has not been focused on too much has been its visual-perception ability, which allows it to recognize, differentiate and quantify different objects. This is, of course, a vital aspect of the brain’s function, which directly links what we see through our eyes to the way we actually understand things in our mind. Now, scientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research have developed software that studies and learns from this ability, gathering information that can pave a new way forward for artificial intelligence.

The software, based on a mathematical model, studied a number of test subjects, who were given different object-recognition tasks. In one experiment, a group of people were asked to look at a picture of a street, and count the number of cars and pedestrians on it. The software’s eye-tracking system recorded the way their eyes moved, and then began predicting where they would first look to next in other tests. The information gathered confirmed that the human brain creates an outline of the image the eyes see, and initially recognizes objects that are more significant or stand out in some way. In a related set of tests, the people were given two objects – a square and a star, and their attention was split on both equally. When given a whole bunch of stars but only one square, the eyes first focused on the square, or the more unique shape. This whole process happens in a split second, but it shows that we always look for something special or unique in whatever we encounter.

When testing out the software on its own, it created a similar spatial map on which it recognized different objects. To do so, it ran down a list of features specific to the object it was asked to identify, and only focused on those that correspond to the said object, while ignored everything else that did not match the description. To truly mimic the human brain, this process will also have to become much faster, but MIT’s researchers are confident they can get it close to that level.

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