Biological Image Analysis: Visual Function in the Contrast-Limited Marine Environment

海洋动物在海底环境中很难看清东西，因为海底的光线强度、颜色范围和物体对比度都比在空气中低。尽管如此，许多海洋动物都有出色的视力，其中最复杂的眼睛之一是一种叫做螳螂虾的甲壳类动物的复眼。这只眼睛包含几类光感受器，其中包括大约8种用于色觉的光色素，另外还有6种以上的偏振探测器，以及一个敏感的紫外线感受器系统。本研究将光电设备的新技术引入该领域，探索水下视觉世界的特性，并利用行为活动来评估视觉感知。利用这些动物作为模型生物系统，这项工作将阐明在困难的视觉环境中对比度增强和图像分析的视觉适应的进化。研究结果将对视觉神经科学、神经行为学和比较进化研究产生广泛影响；将与生态生境和水质的研究有关；这对提出机器视觉的新工程方法很重要。

Marine animals can have difficulties seeing well in the submarine environment, where light intensity, color range, and object contrast are all lower than in air. Nevertheless many marine animals have excellent vision, and one of the most complex eyes known is the compound eye of a crustacean called the mantis shrimp. This eye contains several classes of photoreceptors that include roughly 8 photopigments for color vision, another more than half dozen classes of polarization detectors, and a sensitive system of ultraviolet receptors. This work takes new technology of electro-optical devices into the field to explore the properties of the visual world underwater, and to use behavioral activity to assess visual perception. Using these animals as a model biological system, the work will clarify the evolution of visual adaptations for contrast enhancement and image analysis in difficult visual environments. Results will have broad impact on visual neuroscience, neuroethology, and comparative evolutionary studies; will have relevance to studies of ecological habitat and water quality; and will be important for suggesting new engineering approaches to machine vision.